Centenary festival does credit to The Chainmakers

The 2010 centenary celebration of the historic victory of the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath saw over 4,000 people in attendance. Visitors came from far and wide with delegations from the south west, Ireland, Soctland and Kent all enjoing some late summer sunshine in the Black Country

They heard speeches before the banner parade from Billy Hayes of the CWU, Mary Turner, President of the GMB, and Sylvia Heal, former local MP and past Deputy Speaker of teh House of Commons. After the Banner procession - the biggest by far so far seen at the festival - speeches were received from Eleanor Smith, Vice President of UNISON and legendary figure of the Left, Tony Benn.

Music this year was provided by excellent Black Country musicians, both in the Leftfield, aroung the Museum village and on the main UNISON stage.

Stacey Blythe gave a perfect rendition of her Chainmakers song, backed this year by the Nottingham Clarion Choir.

Our headline act was The Unthanks who played despite the crowd being decimated by late rain showers.

Friday night at the Chainmakers



Sylvia Heal

 Tonight saw the eve of festival launch of the new Black Country Living Museum display depicting the harsh working conditions suffered by the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath. The display, introduced by Museum Director Andrew Lovett and financed by the TUC and affiliated trade unions, is located in the exhibition halls in the main building of the Museum.

The launch was followed by music in the Workers Institute and short speeches by Sylvia Heal, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, and TUC Regional Secretary Cheryl Pidgeon. The evening was rounded off by Stacey Blythe singing the Chainmakers song, which she will reprise at the festival on Saturday 18th September.


Stacey Blythe singing the Chainmakers' song



Music headliner announced for the 2010 Women Chainmakers Festival

The Women Chainmakers festival is delighted to announce that The Unthanks will be headlining the music at the Centenary Women Chainmakers festival to be held at The Black Country Living Museum on Saturday 18th September.

Not many bands can count Radiohead, Portishead, Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt, Ben Folds, Ewan McGregor and Nick Hornby amongst their admirers, but The Unthanks occupy a unique place in music. Northumbria sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank are unsentimental young storytellers outside of time, forging links between folk worlds old, new and other. Staunch traditionalism and sonic adventure ought to be polar opposites, yet they are easy bedfellows in the gentle hands of The Unthanks; the British counterpart to the leftfield folk leanings of Sufjan Stevens, Bonnie Prince Billy, Tom Waits and Fleet Foxes, nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and present in The Best Albums of the Decade (worldwide, all genres) in The Guardian and Uncut. Described by Britain's leading music journalist Paul Morley as "absolutely exquisite", new album Here's The Tender Coming employs a kaleidoscope of unlikely instruments and arrangements.

"Haunting, original and magnificent" The Guardian
"an exquisite mixture of light and dark, instinct and artistry" Uncut
"once in a blue moon type of every now and again, you hear music that is so complete, so wonderful, unique and yet familiar that it stops you in your tracks. They have that blue moon magic about them, and they have it in spades" BBC Music
"Music as tough as it is gentle, as ancient as it is modern, and as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate.. a sensationally graceful sound that can be epic and subdued, dreamy and specific, as well as supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern."
Paul Morley, Observer Music Magazine (Britain's leading music journalist)

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Tony Benn to headline at Women Chainmakers festival

The pioneering work of a formidable group of Black Country women will be honoured at the Women Chainmakers' Festival held at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday September 18, 2010. The event celebrates the 1910 Women Chainmakers strike –100 years after the women, led by Mary Macarthur, marched for better pay and shaped industrial relations in Britain. The main speaker at the TUC organised event will be former cabinet minister Tony Benn.
Benn, who is the longest-serving Labour MP in the history of the party, retired from the House of Commons in 2001 after 50 years in Parliament to ‘devote more time to politics’.
He said:"The Chainmakers' dispute, 100 years ago this year, was a classic trade union battle led by women who inspired the whole trade union movement. This year we will be remembering that battle and honouring those who fought it."
Cheryl Pigeon, TUC Regional Secretary said: “The Chainmakers struggle for a minimum wage marked a turning point in the campaign for better pay for women workers. The lessons from the Chainmakers are still with us today in campaigns to improve pay and working conditions for all workers.”
In 1910 the Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath won a fight to establish the right to a fair wage following a bitter 10 week dispute. This landmark victory changed the lives of thousands of workers who were earning starvation wages. The employers and unions agreed to a minimum wage of two-and-a-half pence an hour - an amount which equaled a 150 percent pay increase for the poorest of workers
Andrew Lovett, Director and Chief Executive of the Black Country Living Museum commented: “It has been said that the Cradley Heath Workers’ Institute – now part of the Black Country Living Museum – is the last physical reminder of the Women Chainmakers Strike of 1910. That maybe so – but the more important legacy is the fairer treatment of working people and the development of a more respectful and tolerant society – one that isn’t built on a kind of semi-slavery of others.”
The story of Mary Macarthur and the Women Chainmakers will be brought to life through stirring speeches, historic re-enactments, theatre and music. The highlight of the day will be a re-creation of the strike march when the women walk to victory once more!