ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1881 several meetings were held of the Joint Council of the West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Miners’ Associations leading to an agreement in early April, subsequently confirmed on 25 April and 23 May, that the two organisations should amalgamate.1 This marked the official founding of the Yorkshire Miners’ Association. Of its initial officers, Edward Cowey as president, Benjamin Pickard as corresponding secretary and William Parrott as agent were drawn from West Yorkshire. John Frith, its financial secretary, was the only member of top leadership formerly associated with the southern section of the county. Beginning operations as from 1 July 1881, the new amalgamated body used as its headquarters the impressive building formerly used by the South Yorkshire Miners’ Association on Huddersfield Road in Barnsley.
