UDM section leaders, Left to right: George Hunter (Colliery Trade and Allied Workers), Ken Toon (South Derbyshire) and Roy Lynk (Nottinghamshire). Photo Credit – Chad Newspaper

In August 1985, following the Nottingham Area NUM leaving the national union at the 1985 NUM Annual and Rules Revision Conference, moves were afoot to form a new moderate miners trade union alliance which would become the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM).

Nottingham miners union minutes of a Special Executive Meeting, 23rd August 1985. Source – UDM Nottingham Section Minutes 1985, p329 & 330.

New pit union’s meeting over rules – Source: Notts Free Press, 30th August 1985

Scargill warns of wilderness in Notts – Source: Notts Free Press, 16th August 1985.

First steps to a New Fed set up – Source: The Nottinghamshire Miner, No. 6, September 1985.