The Miners Scar: A scab on the fabric of British society

“Do you think the mining stuff still affects us around here?” my mum said, “even though it was years ago?” She looked both confused and curious that I was suggesting there was some (a lot) of unacknowledged and unprocessed trauma in the fabric of the villages where we will. I come from an old mining village. We’re surrounded by old mining villages around here, and what happened in the 1980’s has left a very visible scar on the landscape and the people who call these places home.  And the worst part, is that most of it hasn’t even been acknowledged.

“Yes,”  I simply answered. Knowing in my bones it was coming out in a whole host of local societal issues.

The answer to me is obvious. There is community and generation trauma from the closure of the pits and the miners strike in particular within the fabric of our local society, even all these years on. 

And whilst the pits have largely disappeared from sight, and it ‘looks like’ things have moved on, those old wounds of unhealed grief from a life once so abundant and purposeful echos through our communities. 

The men within these societies, the now fathers and grandfathers who are role models in these spaces, suffered deep shame at being tossed aside and unable to provide for their family. That kind of trauma runs deep. And when I look around, I see many of these men still deep in grief at the loss of the community, the friends and the job they once loved. Not because it was the best job in the world, but because it made them feel worthy. It gave them purpose. It gave them the family life they wanted. And this is not just about first generational trauma here though, this is second and third generation now. People who were raised by men suffering with shame, grief and depression, who now carry the scars of the miners who lost so much.

Some of these men never worked again because of the grief. Grief that rolled into depression that rolled into low confidence, self worth, addiction, alcoholism, reclusiveness, anger… it went in all directions. And so we now have a society of children and grandchildren who experienced those behaviors being role modeled in the household as normal, raising children themselves. These new parents possibly never even questioning the behavior of their parents before them, as to why they acted the way they did, and how it might have affected them.

And it wasn’t just the job. Infact the job was just the vehicle really. What actually happened was a community war. Once tight knit families of people forced to pick a side and fight against each other. It was a horrible shadow of the world wars before, which no doubt played a part in how this situation ended too. Generations of the next soldiers, the miners, carrying battle scars from the generation above still traumatised by the two world wars. 

The whole thing ripped the fabric of society apart in small villages like mine. And it still sits in the undercurrent of society here. Never rising to heal, because it’s like the elephant in the room. Despite this huge pit, pardon the pun, in the community, there was no support. No mental health or emotional support to process what was happening. The whole grief process of losing a job, losing and identity, losing a purpose was silenced. Numbed. Covered up.

“But it was ages ago,” people in it would say, “how can it still be affecting us now? I don’t understand?”

It’s not as simple as the event being in the past. Yes, the actual miners strike and closure of the pits WAS years ago. But when emotions go unprocessed, the event, and reaction to the event, is still in the present. People act like it was days ago, not years ago. That’s how it works. It’s in the fabric of the person and it’s not exactly ‘logical’ in how it acts.

Everytime someone picks ‘the other side’ in an argument, the wound rises.

Everytime there’s a focus on money or bills, or lack of money, or taking money away, ‘stealing',’ the wound rises.

Everytime there’s a fallout in the family, the old wounds rise.

The problem is the emotional roots have never been accepted, acknowledged and processed. They’ve never been supported. Men, and women, were expected to just get on with it. They had families to raise. The kids were dealing with the fallout of an emotionally unavailable father and a Mother at her whits end trying to keep everything together and cover up the fact they didn’t know where the next meal was coming from. And that lack then sits in the bones and blood of the child. The pattern repeats… and we go around again. 

People stuck working jobs they hate because they need to make ends meet.

Expecting no more from life than a job that just about covers the bills with no room for extras.

People putting up with emotional unavailability in relationships and a lack of love because that’s what was role modeled.

People being far too frugal with their money that it stops them from developing as a person and growing, because it needs to be in the bank, ‘just incase.’

The cycle repeats. Yes the original wound is gone, but the scars remain and continue to affect the community.

Low confidence. Low self worth. Letting dreams die. Letting potential drift by.

Miners, and children of miners, are still hurting. The grief is as raw as it comes. You only have to watch a documentary on the miners strikes and see grown 70 year old men breaking down in tears as they recall the events of the strikes in the 1980’s - 40 + years ago! Reliving the experience like it’s in the present moment. 

It’s because they haven’t had support to process the grief. Loss of their jobs, their friends, their security. All torn from them whilst simultaneously pitted against their friends or family, as opinions differed on how and when to work. Some forced back to work because they so desperately needed to feed mouths around the table.

And you know what, yes it was 40 years ago, but that’s not actually that long ago at all.

Generationally, that’s not actually that long ago. We’re talking about a grandfather in today’s society being affected as a first generation trauma survivor in this case. And let’s face it, the pits were the tip of the iceberg, because when this happened, we had the parents of the miners still in a trauma hangover from World War One and World War Two. Still living in a very very real scarcity mindset and fear, not knowing where the next meal was coming from, how much they had, or whether their family members would come home from war. 

Miners being kids of parents with anxious attachment styles because of this very real fear, and now they stay in abusive or emotionless relationships and ‘put up’ with the fallout of the miners strike because generations before did that… husbands still suffering from deep war trauma, drinking too much, being abusive, getting angry (because well, why the hell wouldn’t you get angry about what you lost in the war), that being modeled as ‘normal’ behavior when emotions get too much, and the patterns continue. We go round, and round and round.

And then the women, carrying the load of an unavailable man, feeling unloved and devalued, struggling to do it all on their own, working a job they don’t like to keep the family together. That pressure is insane. And this was modeled to people who will now be what, in their 40’s and 50’s? Parents of young adults themselves maybe. It’s only now we’re looking at women's roles and saying ‘that’s far too much’ while we wonder why there are so many breast cancer diagnosis. It seems obvious to me with so much loss, grief, pain and unavailability to be processed by the body from generational trauma.

So do I think the miner's scar is still present? 

There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of the old pit villages are going through a similar transformation right now. Coming out of the haze and the fog as the next generation wake up and realize there is more to life, but needing to come to terms with the past before they can fully step into their future. 

Like a generational amnesia. 

For me, there’s a lot of shame and grief to be healed, especially around the men in these societies. Understanding what happened from a ‘zoomed out’ perspective. Understanding the manipulation and the bigger picture that was at play, how they were porns in a political landscape, and finding forgiveness for each other, no matter what side of the fence they sat in the strikes. The war is over. It’s time to come together and heal.

Alcohol was a big part of community life too, so understanding the crutch of alcohol that was used, and the knock on effect of alcoholism on a family unit. Understanding what it is to be emotionally vulnerable, and making steps towards role modeling that responsibly.

And then for the women. Understanding they don’t need to carry the burden of it all any more. Understanding they are deserving of an emotionally available partner. The scarcity has lifted and there are more options for you now should you choose to take them. You can, and should, pursue your dreams. You carry as much worth as anyone else in this world. And you can do it.

The miners scar is still very present in society, but it’s just not as you would think. 

There’s an imprint of the past that needs to be lifted, and it can only be lifted with awareness. We need to remember our past, but not fall into the trap of becoming a victim of it.