ABSTRACT
Scores of local co-operative societies celebrated their fiftieth anniversary or "jubilee" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Commemorative histories were usually published to mark these events and were distributed to all members of the society for free. Many members of the society were miners and the Yorkshire Miners’ Association was a bastion of Lib-Labism. No history of the Society would be complete without an extended notice of the never-to-be-forgotten four months’ miners’ dispute in 1893. Looking back, it can now be seen how the miners fought heroically a four months’ battle for what they termed a “living wage.” The coal trade after a period of activity was, as the owners said, again at its ebb, and they sought to secure from the miners a large reduction in wages, but the men stood on a new principle, and to many it seemed an impossible one.
