The third of five camera rolls in which Ingrid Sinclair from Trade Films joins women from the Wearmouth Miners Wives Support Group as they march from Gateshead to Newcastle protesting against the cutting off by the North-Eastern Electricity Board (NEEB) of power supplies to their homes. In this tape the group march through Gateshead before heading across the Tyne Bridge into Newcastle and along Pilgrim Street to the head office of the NEEB where protest letters are presented to a...

The third of five camera rolls in which Ingrid Sinclair from Trade Films joins women from the Wearmouth Miners Wives Support Group as they march from Gateshead to Newcastle protesting against the cutting off by the North-Eastern Electricity Board (NEEB) of power supplies to their homes. In this tape the group march through Gateshead before heading across the Tyne Bridge into Newcastle and along Pilgrim Street to the head office of the NEEB where protest letters are presented to a representative of the company. Arriving near the Gateshead Interchange bus and Metro terminal, the women get off the coach with some carrying banners, others have small children and buggies. A large home-made banner is carefully taken off the bus with care before the group makes their way down an embankment and walking towards the start of the march outside a local Co-Operative supermarket on Gateshead’s High West Street. Several smaller placards read ‘Sack the Tories’, two policemen watch over the group along with a television news crew. Several photographers also taking pictures of the women and their banners. The procession begins by heading along Jackson Street with some of the women singing, the large banner seen coming off the bus has been unfurled and reads ‘Wearmouth Miners Wives Support Group. Coal Not Dole’. A smaller banner carried by two women reads ‘Durham Women’s Aid’. The group pass the Metropole Hotel turning left onto High Street with the Wearmouth Miners Wives Support Group banner at the front, the woman chant ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Out, Out. Out!’. Near the back of the group a large red banner for the ‘Gateshead Miners Wives Support Group’, ‘Jarrow Miners Family Support Group’ and ‘Gateshead Labour Party Young Socialists’. As they pass Littlewoods department store, they chant ‘Here We Go!’. BBC Look North reporter Ian Proniewicz interviews one of the women, Julie Ross, as she marches past, a cameraman and sound records walk backward filming said interview. An unmarked police car with its light flashing drives slowly ahead of the procession makes is way through Gateshead. A policeman leads the march as it slowly crosses the Tyne Bridge into Newcastle, the group continues to chant ‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Out, Out. Out!’ and sing ‘Here We Go!’ along with other songs in support of both the miners and Arthur Scargill. As the group travels around Swan House Roundabout heading onto Pilgrim Street, a woman with a pushchair is asked by Ingrid Sinclair if this is the first time she’d been on a protest march. She says no and talks about being on a march in London and the ‘disgusting’ way they were treated by the police. As the marchers continue along Pilgrim Street Ingrid jumps into the procession to interview a woman from Burnhope to whom she spoke previously on the bus. She is asked if she’d been on a protest like this before, the woman replies yes having been on a march at Bedlington the previous Saturday as part of the annual miner’s picnic as well as in Sunderland. The procession comes to a stop outside Carliol House, the head office of the NEEB on Market Street, the group now chanting ‘No More Cuts!’ and ‘We Want Lights!’. In the entranceway of the building two men in suits surrounded by journalists, photographers and television crews as well as the police. One of them comes forward to speak with the representative of the protesters Julie Ross who hands him a folder containing protest letters asking for help with paying electricity bills. She and six others are invited into the NEEB office, she and the man have their photographs taken. As Julie picks six women from the group Ian Proniewicz interviews the representative of the NEEB about the situation and miners being cut off. Julie reads out part of a letter of support they have received from Tony Benn, she finishes, and everyone cheers. The group are interviewed by a female journalist, possibly Diane Neales from Tyne Tees Television. Julie reads again part of the letter from Tony Benn again and everyone cheers.