National Women's Conference in Gateshead - 16-18 Feb 06

As a delegate at the National Women's Conference in Gateshead, I sat in awe at the first session listening to the true story of The Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath and the events leading up to the first national minimum wage movement lead by Mary Macarthur.

In 1910 the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath embarked on a ten week 'lock out' led by the great trade unionist, Mary Macarthur.

The lives of the women chainmakers was desperate, they earned little, worked long hot hours and looked after families. Often children and babies were taken to work. Sheds, used for making the chains, with huge fires, were used by a small group of women to make the chains. Women were not only expected to work the furnace heat and bend the metal, they were also expected to transport the chain to the buyers, maybe a ton at a time. Girls started to learn the trade at an early age.

'One may come across sheds with five or six women, each working at her anvil; they are all talking above the din of their hammers and the clanking of their chains, or they may be singing a discordant chorus; and at first, the sight of this sociability makes one overlook the misery which, however, is only too visible, be it in the foul rags and preposterous boots that the women wear, or in their haggard faces and the faces of the frightened infants hanging to their mothers' breasts, as these ply the hammer, or sprawling in the mire on the floor, amidst the showers of fiery sparks'.

Mary Macarther organised the women and a strike fund. She was so successful she got a national minimum wage for the women chainmakers and the strike fund exceeded all expectations. At the end of the strike, with the money left, the Cradley Heath Workers Institute was built, a two storey Arts and Craft designed building to be used as a centre

of education and social activity. Due to redevelopment the Cradley Heath Workers Institute was to be demolished, however the Black Country Living Museum are going to dismantle and rebuild it on the museum's 26 acre site. Some money has been raised but more is needed (see the Museum's sponsor-a-brick-campaign) and download a sponsor form.

The grand opening of the Institute is planned for 15-17 Feb 07 and the delegates from Devon thought it would be good to support the event by organising a trip up to Dudley for the Women's Group.

If you would like to go:

• please contact me ann.hydes@devon.gov.uk

and if enough people wish to go we could organise a coach from Devon.

Ann Hydes
Womens Officer

left to right: Ann Hydes, Pauline Roberts & Rose Gander at the National Womens Conference, Gateshead, Feb 06.