Marching in memory: Westoe's pit workers get ready for Miners Strike anniversary event

The countdown is on to the 40th anniversary of the end of the Miners Strike which lasted for almost a year until March 1985.

A hundred workers to march once more

To mark the end of the bitter dispute which saw pit workers go back through the gates on March 5, 1985, a huge event is being planned at that very spot on Sunday, March 2 this year.

Up to 100 former pit workers - as well as many others who backed the strike - will first assemble at Mowbray Park at 10.30am.

Then, they will march from 10.45am behind the Westoe Lodge banner with the Harton and Westoe Brass Band playing.

Marching behind the banner and band

The parade will head to the old entrance to Westoe Colliery on Milner Street for 11am where the commemoration will include a speech by Durham Miners Association secretary Alan Mardghum who was a Wearmouth Colliery pit lodge official in 1984.

Afterwards, there will be drinks and a finger buffet at Harton and Westoe Miners Welfare.

Today, organisers sent a message out to others to get along on the day and support the historic event. Those interested should turn up at the park for 10.30am on March 2.

‘The camaraderie that we had there was fantastic’

Ronnie Peterson is chairman of the Harton and Westoe Miners Heritage Group and he was a fitter at Westoe Colliery for 14 years.

He had previously worked at others pits in the Durham coalfield in a colliery career which lasted for 20 years.

He said: “I am still bitter about them shutting the pits. The camaraderie that we had there was fantastic.

One hundred people attend the group’s reunions

“There were about 1,800 people who worked at the colliery at the time of the strike and the Harton and Westoe Miners Heritage Group has been going since 2007.

“We still get around 100 people at the reunions and we have four of them a year.”

“We are hoping to get between 60 and 100 people at the commemoration event.”

Westoe Colliery operated from 1909 to 1993. The site was redeveloped into Westoe Crown Village.