In 1926 a party of miners’ wives left Britain for the Soviet Union, seeking the support of trade unionists for their struggle against the coal-owners. Among them was Annie Errington (top right) from Sacriston in County Durham, pictured in Leningrad.

Ann Nicholson was born in Sacriston in 1882 and married William Errington, a miner at Sacriston Colliery, in 1903. William was a local leader of @DurhamMiners. They went on to have three children together. This family photo is from 1926

There was a large women’s movement in the Durham coalfield in the interwar period. Annie ledthe Sacriston Labour Women’s Section, part of the Chester-le-Street Federation, seen here demonstrating @DurhamGala. Front left, and on the banner, is Bella Lawson, its leader.

During the General Strike and Miners’ Lockout of 1926, Women’s Section Secretaries like Annie Errington would travel by bus to @Redhills and take back to their starving communities food and clothing which had been donated from across the country

This was the desperate context which led to the delegation of Miner’s wives to Russia in 1926 in the hope of international support for their struggle. The group visited Moscow and the Donbass, among other places

While she was away Annie kept in touch with her family by postcards sent from Russia to Sacriston. Until she went to Russia, it seems unlikely that Annie had ever left County Durham.

Annie Errington afterwards was vilified in the media, as shown in this report from the Journal and North Star (2.3.27).

A public meeting at Durham Town Hall was held by the local Tories to attack her.

Among those on the platform at the Town Hall was Col. W.C. Blackett, Managing Director of Sacriston and Charlaw Collieries Co Ltd, where Annie’s husband worked. The class conflict was intensely local.

But Annie went on to become an important political leader in Durham. She was one of the Chester-le-Street Poor Law Guardians who were surcharged and threatened with imprisonment for making ‘over-generous’ welfare payments to out of work miners (Shields Daily News, 26.4.27).

The women's movement was huge. Annie presided over a mass gathering of the Durham Women’s Sections at Roker Park in Sunderland in June 1928. Over 10,000 people attended (Daily Herald, 11.6.28).

By 1938, Annie had been appointed a Justice of the Peace – remarkable for somebody who taken on the British state and was threatened with jail a decade earlier (Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 19.7.38)

She was elected to Chester-le-Street Rural District Council and served on Sacriston Parish Council alongside her husband (Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 22.12.45). Later she was elected to @DurhamCouncil.

Annie led an extraordinary and pioneering life which is unheralded today. These houses in Sacriston are known as Errington Bungalows. Presumably built by the former Chester-le-Street Rural District Council they are now owned by @karbonhomes. There's no plaque or memorial.

Annie Errington died in 1959 and William in 1963. I have drawn on Kath Connolly’s research on the 1926 visit to Russia. I am keen to know more about Annie, so please get in touch if you have information. Image: Witton Lodge banner, Front Street, Sacriston, c1940s?