From Cortonwood Colliery, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, women attending the Durham Rally discuss their hardships and roles during the Miners' Strike.

Cortonwood Colliery was first sunk in 1873 and expanded quickly into the early part of the 20th century. By the 1920s many of the shafts had been worked out, and by the 1970s Cortonwood was producing only coking coal for the steel industry. In March 1983, Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher approved the hiring of Scottish-American industrialist Ian MacGregor as the new head of the National Coal Board (NCB). McGregor was brought on to turn around the fortunes, and profits, of the company in the same way he had done a few years previous with British Steel; by making massive job cuts and closing unprofitable mines.
Cortonwood's fate was announced on the 1st March, 1984 when the NCB announced its closure only four weeks later with the loss of 850 jobs. In protest on the 6th March, there was a walkout by the miners followed shortly thereafter by 56,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers' (NUM) Yorkshire Area. On the 12th April Arthur Scargill, President of the NUM, made the strike official across all of Britain.
Like elsewhere during the dispute, it was the women of Cortonwood who came together to support their miners forming the Ladies' Action Group. During the strike they not only protested in the picket line but also raised money to support and feed families as well as organise events, meetings, and rallies.
On the 5th March, 1985 with the end of the national dispute, miners at the colliery made the decision to return to work. Sadly, their return was short-lived as in early October the NCB announced again the closed the pit with the final shift bring up the last cage of miners to the surface on the 25th October.

Cortonwood wives talking about their personal roles during the 1984 pit strike; with shots of the Chopwell Lodge Banner at the Durham Miners' Rally; footage of street collections on behalf of the striking miners at Silver Street Durham; and the distribution of food parcels.