Coal mining collections
Research guides
Finding coal mining archives in the UK
Historical sources relating to the coal mining industry in Britain are held by many different organisations across the country. This guide includes information about the location of some of the main national and regional collections.
Coal mining archives at the MRC
The Modern Records Centre holds key archive collections relating to the coal mining industry and mining trade unionism. This guide provides a general overview and includes links to the archive catalogues.
Family history sources: coal miners
Guide to researching mining ancestors in the Modern Records Centre's archives.
Sources on coal mining safety, health and welfare
Coming soon.
The General Strike
The 1926 General Strike was called in support of the Miners鈥� Federation of Great Britain. This guide identifies key archive collections about the dispute held at the Modern Records Centre.
The Miners' Strike, 1984-5
This subject guide highlights some of the main archive collections at the Modern Records Centre which contain material relating to the 1984-5 Miners' Strike.
Digitised collections
This digitised collection contains documents relating to the colliers of Yorkshire and the mining trade unions who represented them.
It includes documents from the archives of the Yorkshire Miners' Association (YWA), formed in 1881, and the YMA's two predecessors the South Yorkshire Miners' Association and West Yorkshire Miners' Association, both formed in 1858. The online sources also include a rare surviving set of rules from an early 19th century miners' friendly society, established in Wakefield in 1811.
This collection contains a selection of primary sources relating to industrial health and welfare in Britain during the 1870s-1980s, including documents relating to the mining industry.
The sources examine some of the dangers within the workplace and campaigns to improve safety, health and welfare for the men and women at work.
This digitised collection contains primary sources relating to the 1984/5 Miners' Strike.
The collection includes leaflets, pamphlets and other publicity material produced by the National Union of Mineworkers at national and local level, and by local community groups which supported the strike.
.