Coal, community and the 1984-85 miners' strike | Amanda Powell | TEDxNantymoel

What can the heartrending stories which emerge from the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike tell us about community today? That’s the question posed by award-winning journalist and author Amanda Powell in this moving talk, illustrated by her husband Richard Williams’ compelling archive photographs.

Through the powerful experiences of people her husband photographed at the time of the year-long strike, Amanda takes us on a journey into the history of coal-mining in the South Wales Valleys until its demise under the National Coal Board.
The memories and thoughts of these ex-miners and their families demonstrate the hardships they endured but also celebrate their hope as adversity drew people together. Amanda shares three powerful messages about how we could draw on this tumultuous period in Welsh and British history to strengthen our own communities today, wherever we might live. Award-winning writer Amanda Powell (https://amandapowellmedia.co.uk/) has a long career as a journalist and editor. Originally from a coalmining family in the Rhymney Valley, she became a graduate trainee at what was then Thomson Regional Newspapers and began her career as a junior reporter at the Glamorgan Gazette in the early 1980s. It was here she met her photographer husband Richard Williams where they covered events of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike together in the valleys around Bridgend. Amanda then moved to the South Wales Argus in Newport and after that took up senior roles as a journalist, producer and editor at the BBC with 30 years in the news, sport and factual TV departments in Wales.
In recent years, Amanda returned to her roots in print as a feature writer for the Western Mail Saturday Magazine and has also co-authored a book of her husband’s photographs called "Coal and Community in Wales: Including Images of the Miners’ Strike" published by Y Lolfa in Spring 2024. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx