The inter-war years brought many changes to the mining community and to mining women. After a boom during the war, the industry sank into depression. One problem was the loss of markets during the war, particularly severe in exporting districts such as northumberland, and a slowness to mechanise the cutting and haulage of coal. the return to the gold standard in 1924 which plunged the United Kingdom into depression five years before the 1929 crash further added to the problems of the coal industry. the combined result was that what had been known as ‘King Coal’ before the war became the ‘sick man’ of industry in the 1920s and 30s. this change in the fortunes of the mining industry had major effects on mining families. A related feature of the inter-war period was the nationwide industrial strife in the coal industry, first in 1920 and 1921 and then, much more severely, in the six-month lockout in 1926. The onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s furthered the difficulties of the industry and added to the woes of mining families. Not until the eve of the second World War did the situation begin to improve. Yet the inter-war period was not all doom and gloom for mining women. Some of the burdens of the women's lives were lifted in this period as a result of official actions and the actions of mining families, especially women.