Publisher's Synopsis
With the rapid closure of pits over the past decade, miners' banners have become a unique reminder of the struggles, history and comradeship of the mining communities. In Northumberland only twenty banners are known to have survived the closures and most are held at Woodhorn Colliery Museum in Ashington, with a few others housed in local schools and Welfare Institutes. Follow the Banner draws this scattered collection together into one richly-illustrated volume.
David Williams evokes the Northumberland Miners' Picnic, when these magnificent banners were annually flown. Later chapters discuss the banner collection in relation to a tradition which spans 170 years and is shared by trade unionists across the country. The second half of the book is dedicated to a detailed catalogue of the banners. Their imagery, slogans and history are analysed, using original research drawn from the oral testimony and handwritten pages of branch minute books. Each banner is illustrated in full colour.
