'On the March'. An Exhibition of Union Banners. Manchester until 30 October 2011

Photo by Roger Cornwell,
 reproduced with permission under Creative Commons Licence

Banners.  For me they epitomise the proud traditions of the coal miners' Unions of north-east England. Huge and heavy, their polished wood poles having proud brass finials, many of these banners were supported on wheels as they paraded through the streets during the celebratory Galas. Their decorations were many and varied:  insignia of the particular Lodge, portraits of political heroes, religious imagery, romantic images of the workplace, the workers and their families, the pains of the past, and the hopes of the future when workers would rule the world.  The example above comes from the Flickr photostream of Roger Cornwell. You can read and see the banner history of one particular lodge on the Murton Heritage Society site, and view many more, listed according to lodge, on the  website of The Durham Miner project.

During the Miners strike in the 1980s banners were rallying points for protest and demonstration, and then were carried bravely by the men marching back to the doomed mines when it was all over. It was indeed all over for the mines, but not for the banners - as can be seen in The Northern Echo's coverage of the 2010 126th Durham Miner's Gala.

I had never given much thought about how they were made, or even properly considered them 'textiles', until one day I saw an old  banner up close, and was stunned by a vibrant blue fabric, probably silk, on which was the crusted thick paintwork,  the whole ornamented with heavy cords and  tassels.  Wikipedia tells me that to begin with the banners were locally made by signwrighters, coachpainters or decorators, but that from 1837 onwards 'more than three quarters' were made by a firm called George Tutill of Chesham in Buckinghamshire. Good heavens, I grew up there, its a small town, and I never knew! Their banners at that time were made from London silk.   The silk was stretched taut over a frame, covered with India rubber, then decorated with 'old' oil paint, as this allowed the paint to dry quickly and become more pliant.  I see from their website that the firm still thrives.

I had thought that with the decline of the mines the banners might have become a thing of the past,  rolled up and forgotten or given into the care of museums such as Beamish, in the North of England.  (Beamish have one  which was rescued from a rubbish tip) But only last week I was chatting with a textile conservator when the talk turned to banners.  I was pleased to hear that abandonment is a rare fate, that old banners are still treasured, cared for, and conserved when necessary, and that replicas are being made so that they could still be paraded. And that so long as there are causes to which people will rally, new banners will be made.

Soon after talking to the conservator, I was doing my usual trawl for blog items and what did I find but an exhibition of banners currently on display in the Peoples History Museum in Manchester.  The exhibits are the work of Ed Hall, an ex-council architect who fell into the work 30 years ago and discovered a vocation.  The museum has posted an interview with Ed in which he describes his personal design and construction techniques.  A lot of his work has been for the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers).  It looks like an exhibition worth visiting for the graphic design alone.

Modern banners are somewhat lighter in weight, and no longer roll along on wheels.  But there is one trick which the miners understood and modern demonstrators seem to have forgotten, as Ed reminds us in his video.  Never tie your banner down, let it blow in the breeze.  Tie it to the base of your poles and you will find you are struggling to walk along carrying a giant sail, and if you turn a corner into a headwind your poles will snap.

I'll remember that on my next demo.