How the Anthracite Strike of 1925 affected Ammanford

Those of a certain age may remember the mining strikes in the 1980s and may have heard stories from older generations about the 1926 general strike.

One strike we will cover today is the Ammanford Anthracite Strike of 1925.

There was a large number of anthracite mines across Carmarthenshire and western Glamorgan and all were bought up by 1925 by the United Anthracite Collieries (UAC) and the Amalgamated Anthracite Collieries (AAC).

The combined trusts were set up by mine owners a year earlier in response to international events which saw coal prices rise.

The reason for this was French military occupying the Ruhr coalfield of Germany in 1923 which saw a reduction in coal being exported from the site.

This led to an increase in exports of coal from south Wales, alongside other European and America coal exporting companies.

The Ammanford miners released from prison after the Anthracite Strike in 1925. Picture: Terry Norman via AmmanfordHistory.org.uk

Fast forward to 1925 and the Ruhr coalfield was freed by Germany which then led to the thriving exports from the Welsh valleys to suffer.

German coal was heavily subsidized, allowing for them to sell at lower prices and competition was on the increase with Poland’s subsidized exports.

Then chancellor of the exchequer Winston Churchill added a further blow to the export business by bringing Britain back onto the gold standard which severely affected the sterling exchange rate.

At this point, the output of coal fell by 24 million tons in 1925 compared to the previous year, with the pithead price dropping to 14/1 (70p) per ton compared to 19/9 (99p) per ton in 1923/24.

This led to a number of pits closing and communities struggling with people out of work and no income. And the ending of subsidizing coal by the UK Government left the coal mine owners to do as they please.

D.J Williams, Labour MP for Neath between 1945-64, was an anthracite miner during the period of the strike. The Gwaun Cae Gurwen resident said: “The growth of these powerful Combines effects a complete revolution in the relations of capital and labour in the coal industry.

"Time was when the colliery worker knew his employer personally.

"In those days, it was the custom of the owner himself to come round the faces to consider allowances, prices, special job rates, and to meet in person the workers and their representatives.

“Such is not the case now. The old relations of persons have given way to the new relations of things. The Combine is a vast machine, and the worker is merely a cog in it.

"He does not know his employers; probably he has never seen them. But the struggle between labour and capital still goes on, only it is now fought in a more intensive form. It is now a struggle between workers – through their organisation – and the vast unit known as the Capitalist Combine.”

The miners had their organisation ‘the Fed’ to represent the interests of the miners but the Combines saw this as an obstacle to profit.

In 1925, the strike began at Ammanford No 1 Colliery after the UAC took over, appointed a new manager and attempts to cut rights to holidays including New Year and Good Friday and to change the short Saturday shift and house coal for lodgers.

It escalated when the UAC challenged the rights of the important custom of seniority rule which protected the workmen from victimisation from management.

At the time, there was a degree of protection for those who had been there longer, with the ‘first in, last out’ rule so bosses couldn’t pick and choose who to lay off.

This was important for Amman Valley miners as for three months of the year, many of the pits closed due to the St Lawrence River freezing so no coal could get through, which affected the export of coal out to Canada – Amman Valley’s biggest coal export destination.

During this period, the workers would take up roles in eastern mines to earn an income and would return back to the Amman Valley pits to reclaim their old jobs.

The same happened in the summer months when there was less of a demand for coal from the pits.

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The new management at Ammanford No 1 refused to acknowledge and implement this rule.

Workers had enough after a man, Will Wilson, was sacked at the end of April 1925 in relation to a custom where a father could have his son work with him if his regular partner would agree to work in another place.

Four other Ammanford pits joined the Ammanford No 1 workers in deciding to strike and took the matter to the ‘Fed.’ Anthracite miners from the whole Swansea district were soon on strike.

Miners picketed at a number of colleries which led to bloody confrontations between them and the police.

On the second day of the strike – July 14 – there were only two pits still working and miners decided they would picket those out too.

Ianto Evans, an Ammanford miner, recalled in 1932: “A mass meeting was arranged at Glanamman football ground and it was a glorious sight, thousands of workers being present and by this time news had come through that these two collieries were working.

“Eventually, a letter from a contact in the Dulais Valley was handed to the chairman, Arthur Thomas, with the information regarding the situation.

“A resolution was moved that a demonstration proceeded that night to meet these workmen going to work the following morning. The resolution was carried unanimously, and a rush was made to Ammanford to get a crowd together as no prior arrangements had been made.”

400 strikers left Ammanford at 10.40pm with the Ammanford brass band. As they proceeded up the valley, they were joined by miners and brass bands from Cwmamman, GwaunCae Gurwen and Brynamman, with 15,000 involved on approach to Ystradgynlais.

They walked 21 miles through the night to get to Crynant in the Dulais Valley.

Irene Jones was living in Gwaun Cae Gurwen at the time and recalled in March 1992 what she saw as a nine-year-old.

She said: “They created a lot of disturbance. When they returned, they could barely walk as their feet had cuts and blisters. They were exhausted.”

She also spoke of the start of the arrests and the support for those arrested in the village: “David Daniel Davies, known as Dai Dan, was taken to jail during the strike. When he came out, the GCG band were playing on the Waun Square and the whole village was out to welcome him and a grand concert was held in the public hall.

“I sang at the concert.”

The community came together with soup kitchens for the miners’ children, the money for the food raised by the concerts and some of the miners would sing on the streets to raise money.

Shopkeepers would give food without payment to those who couldn’t afford to pay, knowing that following the strike, they would be repaid in instalments.

Ms Jones recalled that there were riots at Betws Colliery. “A bus fill of policemen came down from Glamorgan with batons. People were frightened to go out of the house.”

Riots happened simultaneously at Ammanford square, Ammanford No 2 Colliery, Betws, Wernos, Pantyffynnon and Llandybie Collieries on July 30.

Ammanford No 2 had a police baton charge and 200 Glamorgan policemen were ambushed on Pontamman Bridge but the picketers were driven back into Ammanford in a tussle that lasted from 10.30pm to 3am.

Medal given to the miners on their release from prison. Picture: Terry Norman via AmmanfordHistory.org.uk

The strike was a success, with the UAC recognising the seniority rule and the miners returned to work on August 24, however, Ammanford No 1 was closed for good by the UAC in a reprisal. Those working in that mine were transferred to other local collieries.

While the strike was over, punishment for those involved was just beginning. 198 people were prosecuted for the riots that unfolded, with 58 miners sent to prison. The trials saw bus loads of miners and their families travel to Carmarthen to cheer the prisoners and sing hymns.

Ammanford miners were levied a shilling a day to pay minimum wage to the prisoners’ dependants and the Fed lent £10,000 to cover legal and other costs.

The prisoners were given sentences of one to 18 months and there was outrage at the injustice.

It is said one miner from Cwmtwrch was so badly injured by police truncheons to the head, that he never worked again as a miner. He was a sole supporter of a widowed mother and eight children. No police were charged for any of the riots and injuries.

Every man, on release from prison, was greeted by huge crowds at the railway station and mass processions led by brass bands accompanied them round the streets of their native villages when they came home.

There were even concerts put on to welcome them back.

Each of the miners imprisoned was awarded a medal and a scroll by the International Class War Prisoners Aid Association on their release.

With thanks to Terry Norman for the information and photographs compiled from Hywel Francis's work published in Llafur (Labour) in 1973.