Trades unionists, performers, and community groups will come together in Stoke-on-Trent to mark the fortieth anniversary of the 1984-85 miner’s strike.

This will be the focus of the second Potteries Chartist Festival taking place in the marketplace in Burslem on Sunday 18^th August between 11am and 4pm.

The event has been supported by trades unions including UNITE and the Labour-controlled city council.

Appearing will be artists, including singer Shannon Whetnall and local Nick Degg and there will be a performance of the play The Miner Birds created by Lisa Blower to celebrate the role played by miners’ wives locally and nationally in the strike.

There will also be an evening event at the nearby Old Post Office pub featuring a performance of the play Battle Lines by Banner theatre and an open mic night featuring local musicians and poets.

Shannon Whetnall is a Staffordshire-born singer, musician and actor and the director of the Young People’s Theatre Company for New Vic Borderlines.

Nick Degg is a locally born spoken word performer famous for his powerful poem “I Come From A Town” celebrating Stoke’s resilience in the face of adversity.

The Miner Birds was written by Lisa Blower and draws on the experiences of the North Staffs Miners’ Wives Action Group and uses song, storytelling and poetry to celebrate a generation of women who found their political voice during the strike.

Lisa Blower was born in Stoke-on-Trent and studied at Sheffield Hallam and Manchester universities. As well as writing for the stage, she has published a novel, short stories and non-fiction based on her experiences of growing up in the city.

The Potteries Chartist Festival was launched in 2023 to commemorate the death of Leek-born trades unionist Josiah Heapy in the 1842 Chartist riots and is organized by the People’s History Association of North Staffordshire (PHANS).

A spokesperson for PHANS said the festival will be a “celebration of hope and solidarity and the remarkable story of the miners’ wives without whom the strike could never have been maintained.”

To find out more about PHANS, visit their Facebook page here.

Image: Author: Jamain, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.