At the beginning of Henson's episcopate the Durham miners were on strike. He got on well with miners individually and conversed with many of them as they walked through the extensive grounds of Auckland Castle. It was said of him that he got on easily with everyone "except other dignitaries in gaiters". Friction arose from Henson's belief that strikes were morally wrong because of the harm they did to other working people, and he had, in Grimley's words, "a violent, almost obsessional", dislike of trade unions. His early concern for the welfare of the poor remained unchanged, but he regarded socialism and trade unionism as negations of individuality. For the same reason he was against state provision of social welfare, though a strong advocate of voluntary spending on it. Later in his bishopric Henson denounced the Jarrow March in 1936 as "revolutionary mob pressure" and condemned the action of his subordinate, the suffragan Bishop of Jarrow, who had given the march his blessing. He loathed class distinction, and was not antipathetic to social reformers, but he was strong in his criticism of Christian campaigners who maintained that the first duty of the Church was social reform. To Henson, the Church's principal concern was each individual man or woman's spiritual welfare.