Mrs Ann Errington of Sacriston: the political biography of a Durham miner's wife between the wars

Abstract

ABSTRACT The place of women in the history of UK coalfield communities remains under-researched. This paper addresses this lacuna through an examination of the life of County Durham miner's wife, Annie Errington, who emerged as an important political leader in her community in the interwar period. Situating her life story in the context of her community, characterised by strong cooperative and socialist values, the paper assembles her political biography from fragmented sources. It identifies her key role in local government, her visit to Soviet Russia in 1926 and as a leader of a mass movement of miners’ wives in interwar Britain. While avowedly a miner's wife, Annie Errington emerges as an important political leader, albeit her role was limited by prevailing orthodoxies about gender relations, some of which she endorsed herself. The paper contributes to the feminist historiography of mining communities, which has largely overlooked—and at times denied—the extent of political activism of women in this period.