Mr and Mrs MacManners
Childhood home. Parents and their respective approaches to punishing the children, corporal punishment and other methods; getting around them. Gramophone in the attic. More on discipline, lack of it today; respect for the village policeman. Use of the cane in schools, attitudes to this, examples. Friend of boy who ended up in training school, his tricks, pawned father’s suit. Option of sanctions as punishments. Explains the social rules of dances when they were young. Treatment of a dead pitman. Opinions of Winston Churchill. Thoughts about the origins of socialism, early socialists including ...

Colin Howson
Memories of the 1975 celebrations - watching the cavalcade - led to interest in locomotives. Local mining and politics?

Frank Harrison
Describes aspects of his job as bricklayer at the pit, in the 1960s. Comments on trustworthiness of the pit men. Closure of pit. Found a place at the Works by luck. Comments on 1960s Shildon being a good place to be. Memories of public houses and cinemas in the area. Recalls getting first television, 1953. Remembers Tony Hancock. Opinion that life was better then.

Frank Harrison
Served in the army during world war two - brief memories of places he went, especially in Burma. Newcastle Victory March. Served time as a bricklayer then went into the mines; role of a mines bricklayer, conditions in the pit. Then as a bricklayer in Shildon Works - easier than in the mines. Memories of his wife. Memories of 1975 celebrations. Impressions of local politics, feelings about the Works closure and its effects. Mention of Jarrow March.

Garry Huntington
Mother a housewife, father drove coaches - eating rabbits killed by them. Inspired by visit to Astraka fur factory, began work there. Early history of Astraka, its role in development of fake fur. Markets - antarctic expeditions, breaking into Russian market, famous clients, diversification, Olympic team. Work as a pattern cutter - uniform, working day, relationship with designers. Examples of funny mistakes made and importance of customer service. Making a horse blanket. Worked as a trouble shooter for catalogue comapnies. Early work in the stores; later a pattern cutter, negotiating for bett...

Joe Chaplin
Father's work as electrician and rope guide for a hauler. Houses they lived in, overcrowding. Work scraping bricks. Was bellman at Dean and Chapter pit, and electrician at Eldon Drift. Compares method and mechanisation at Eldon and Middridge. Joining the pumping team. Pit system of two entrances, methods of ventilation. Being "set on" to work at the pit, the work of hewers. Describes penalties for getting too much stone, and the token system. Tubs, wagons, the making and repairing of the main drift. Water in the mines. Describes a normal day's work. Installing water pumps; improvements in elec...

Maurice Peacock
Lived in Shildon till 14 years old, poor family. Outlines his jobs. Father in mines beneath the house. Street games - boiling chips in axle grease, smoking a pipe, stealing from goods yard, playing football. The walk to school. Sunday school. Buildings in the area. Deprivations of the Depression years. 1925 wagonway celebrations. Local police. Uncle's double seat toilet. Father's moleskin trousers. Vehicles on the roads. Making igloos. Soup from the Salvation Army in General Strike. Going to the cinema. No class distinction amonst children. Home remedies. Given extra chores if disobeyed parent...

Kathy and Walter Nunn
Kathy's family. She moved to Shildon when married. Her aunt was a baker, her uncle the lamplighter. Cleaning and feeding a house full of miners. Brief -work in a canteen, brothers' work, poor area, mother threatened her with going into domestic service. Wash day, cottages with a slate by the door. Brief - accidents of brother. Brother Sid Chaplin, a writer. Sounds of buzzers. Playing in pump floodwater. Relationship between miners and railwaymen. Family finances. Brief - The General Strike. Persistence of bad feeling towards blacklegs of 1912 and also those of 1984. TB especially in overcrowd...

Barry Wood
Memory of the 1972 "Gormley" miners' strike. Compares to the more antagonistic 1984 strike. Things initially quiet on the picket lines, but gradual shift. Hard as many policement from mining families or had been miners. Had to be careful leaving police vehicle when visiting mother. Increased violence, stress caused by police brough from outside. Trying to rebuild relationships with community. Own opinion on inevitability of strike. Once had to bring dogs to the scene in case they were needed in a riot - but as dog handler was never directly involved. Incident with bus load of miners taking sac...

Sheilagh Matheson
Industrial correspondent for Tyne Tees Television in the 1980s, followed the growing strike from its local roots in Sacriston. Routine filming picket lines. Knew it would be a long strike. Police were violent but always off-camera. Filmed attack on Ian MacGregor and subsequent interview, captured the spirit of the moment. Relationship with miners, some camaraderie but got harder over time. Provocative behaviour of southern police. Sadness of return to work. Long term effects on communities. Reported a little on women's role. People sceptical of a female industrial correspondent, but actually a...