Coal Picking 002

Blackburn people taking the opportunity to scavenge for coal, dropped as wagons are unloaded, when the King Street railway sidings were thrown open. Almost everyone at the time was dependent on coal for cooking and to keep warm. This was during a national miners' strike which led to a coal famine. The miners' struck in a desperate attempt to defend their living standards in the face of colliery owners attempt to introduce drastic wage cuts. rnBlackburn Weekly Telegraph, 14th May 1921