Maerdy NUM and Maerdy Womens Support Group banners, Rhondda Heritage Park

Two banners associated with the Maerdy coal mine in south Wales were brought to the studio for cleaning and stabilisation in readiness for display in new gallery in the Rhondda Heritage Park.  The banners were heavily soiled and worn, partly from the effects of long term open display in the one of the pit buildings but also from active use during the miners’ demonstrations against pit closures in the 1980s.  The Maerdy mine, which opened in the 1870s was the last of the Rhondda Valley coal mines to close in 1990.  The two banners were surface and wet cleaned to remove the large amounts of surface dust and ingrained sooty soil.  Weak and damaged areas were stabilised and lengths of Velcro™ stitched to one side for mounting on fabric covered boards in the gallery.  Cleaning of the Maerdy Womens Support Group banner revealed the previously obscured signature of Arthur Scargill, the National Union of Mineworkers’ president which he added when the newly-made banner was presented at a rally in London in 1984.  Replicas of the two banners were carried in processions in and around the town of Maerdy in 2012 and 2015 in remembrance of the closure of the mine.