This year marks the 40th anniversary of the National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM's) bitterly divisive 1984–1985 strike. It's a timely reminder of how hard our forebears fought to scratch a living both under and above ground at collieries that dotted the industrial landscape from the Highlands down to Dover.
Despite the history of coal mining in Britain stretching back hundreds of years, with more than one million workers employed by the early 20th century, locating surviving employment records for any era is not straightforward. You stand a better chance if your ancestor worked for the National Coal Board when the industry was nationalised between 1947 and 1994 (the NCB became the British Coal Corporation in 1987). Employment records, medical-history cards and notices of accidents) but a National Insurance number would assist with any of these searches.
