According to some reports in 1869 the miners complained about the safety conditions underground, but Andrew Knowles and Sons refused to concede and a strike began. After some weeks miners were brought in from the Black Country to break the strike. The incoming miners (known as "Bilston scabs") were given the houses formerly occupied by the striking miners. However other researchers have cast doubt in the details. cites newspaper reports from 1866 indicating discontent with the management due to the banning of a trades union. The "Wigan Observer" (quoted by Cutler) reported the ejection of locked out miners in 1866 and their replacement by "200 men from Cornwall and 300 from Staffordshire" brought by the company along with "about twice as many" who came "at their own expense". By the time of the 1885 disaster (below), all the men killed had a local address and were identified by people who also had a local address (where one was given). For many years afterwards the area became known as Little Bilston.