This short account of the strike at Foxcote, Writhlington, and Braysdown Collieries in 1864 was reported in the The Mining and Smelting Magazine edited by Henry Curwen Salmon.
“The strike at the Foxcote, Writhlington, and Braysdown Collieries, belonging to Messrs. Naish and Wait, came to an end at the beginning of October, after lasting about eighteen weeks. It arose from a dispute connected with the quantity and weight of coal at the Foxcote pit, the men requesting that a weighbridge might be placed at the top of the pit, so that they might know the exact quantity of coal each one sent to the surface. The owners, however, refused, and an immediate strike ensued, not only at Foxcote, but at the Braysdown and Writhlington pits, and the men joined the union. The owners, in their turn, determined not to employ a union man, discharged the whole and closed their pits. Although the men have been liberally supported during their struggle by the miners of Wales and the neighbourhood, they have, with the exception of a few of the leaders, whom the masters will not accept, conceded in every respect to their views, left the union, and have gone to work on precisely the same conditions as when they stopped. “
