A memorial window commemorating the end of the 1984-85 Miners' Strike and was proudly displayed in Sunderland Civic Centre has found a new home.
In 2010, York-based artist Dan Savage was commissioned by Sunderland City Council to work with the Durham Miners' Association (DMA) to create a large window as a memorial to mark the 25th anniversary of the day when striking miners returned to work. The artistic 9ft piece was unveiled by then general secretary of the DMA, Dave Hopper and was installed above the entrance to the main council chamber.
The symbolic window remained in place for 12 years, but many may have wondered what has happened to it now that demolition work has started on the civic centre. Fortunately, the window can now be found at its new home in the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, a stone's throw away from the old civic centre. Sunderland City Council confirmed that the window was moved to the museum last summer, and visitors can see it on display.
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The window was transferred to the museum in preparation for the demolition of the civic centre, which began in October, and is paving the way for 265 new homes to be built on the land. The municipal building on Burdon Road was vacated by Sunderland City Council last year, after it relocated to City Hall at the old Vaux site. Demolition contractor MGL Demolition, part of the MGL Group, is dismantling the 1960s building - which will unlock the development of a sustainable community of high-quality new homes.
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike pitted Arthur Scargill's National Union of Mineworkers against Margaret Thatcher's Tory government. The dispute brought hardship to Sunderland and the other pit communities across the North East and lasted for a year. At the time of the strike there were 18 working pits in the Durham-Northumberland coalfield and in the years after the bitter conflict, most of the coal mines in Britain closed and union power was diminished.
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