Description:Pictured is one of a number of shallow outcrop pits (about 4 feet square) which were dug for coal getting during the General Strike of 1926.
Printed on an unused postcard and cropped to fit a frame, this photograph has handwritten on the reverse; "Cheadle, Staffs Coal Strike 1926" and on the front, smoking a cigarette, a young man identified as "Aunty Marjories Dad". Four other men are seated in front of a crude wooden framework to which is attached a rope descending into a shaft. A young woman stands in front of a lean-to which may be an entrance the striking miners had made into into a coal outcrop. A bicycle leans against the entrance. There were probably many similar groups of miners doing the same work nearby.
The unsuccessful nine-day General Strike of May, 1926 was the largest strike in Britain's history. The Trades Union Congress called the strike to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for coal miners : "Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day." The miners stayed on strike until hardship had forced most men back to work under the worsened pay and hours by November.