Nostalgia: How the Miners' Strike 40 years ago signalled the end of coal

During late February 1984 several South Yorkshire collieries had skirmishes with the National Coal Board and, perhaps, set a fighting mood for the bitter, year-long struggle which followed.

Draped against the backdrop of an NUM overtime ban – in force from October 31, 1983 – a special meeting of the South Yorkshire NUM panel voted on February 24, 1984 to support more than 1,400 men on strike at Manvers Main Colliery.

The men were striking over management's decision to change shaft examination times and snap arrangements. Kilnhurst and Wath pits, which supplied the Manvers preparation plant and employed a further 1,200 miners, were also at a standstill because of the dispute. A spokesman for the NCB said the union had pre-empted the procedures by coming out on strike.

‘The dispute can end as soon as the NCB wants it to,’ sniped NUM officials, claiming the changes were part of an attempt to sabotage the national overtime ban, and were to be introduced without following the full consultation procedure. At one point the South Yorkshire NUM panel called for the strike to be escalated across Yorkshire and, if necessary, to every pit in the country.

A conflict erupted on February 27, at Edlington's Yorkshire Main pit and took an unpleasant turn the following day when management staff had a police escort to enter the offices.

The NUM argued that bad management led to a walk out by 1,500 men, over working conditions on a coal face in the Swallowood seam.

Responding to the incident NCB Doncaster area director Albert Tuke said: ‘It is essential that members of the management get to work to supervise the running of the underground booster fans.’

In the ensuing days the problem seemed to be over, the Board promising an investigation into the men's complaints so they went back to work. Safety inspectors said this should be carried out under section 123 of the Mines & Quarries Act.

But the trouble flared up again, the NCB saying the face was fit to work and ordered the men on to the workings. Also, the introduction of stint markers – painted white lines on roof at the face – angered the workforce. They indicated just how much management expected miners to achieve each day. The colliers and safety officials were furious, reiterating this was interfering with safety standards.

When the men came out again, pickets pelted colliery bosses with stones and the night team of management was trapped on the colliery premises unable to escape, fearing for their safety.

The NCB was swift in its response announcing that if the violence did not end immediately they were willing to abandon the pit.

Predictably, disputes at Edlington and Manvers were put to one side and left unresolved when Yorkshire's 56,000 miners were called out on strike following the announcement of plans to close Cortonwood pit near Wombwell.

Yorkshire President, Jack Taylor, said that the NUM's Yorkshire Area Council was using the power to call the strike given to them by a members' ballot in 1981.

By that time, 10,000 South Yorkshire miners were on strike in sympathy with men at Manvers. Yorkshire Main NUM officials admitted their local grievances about safety and working practices had been overtaken by events

Numerous incidents occurred during the year-long dispute and Yorkshire Post photographers were on hand to capture some of these.

In April 1984, three members of the Flying Pickets cappella vocal group – Ken Gregson, Brian Hibbard and Red Stripe – chatted with picketing miners round their fire outside Drax Power Station. They arrived to express their support and pick up some publicity.

One of the most controversial incidents of the 1984/5 strike was ‘the Battle of Orgreave’ which occurred on June 18, 1984. Pickets numbered between 5,000 and 6,000 and were from various parts the UK.

The police had between 4,000 and 8,000 officers, many of them bussed in from other forces. Eye witnesses state there were between 40 and 50 mounted police and 58 police dogs.

In the same month, around 8,000 miners followed the funeral cortege of Kellingley miner Joe Green, the second of their colleagues to die on the picket lines during the dispute. Joe, of Knottingley near Pontefract, died in an accident with a lorry while picketing Ferrybridge Power Station. Miners from all over the country took part in the procession from Pontefract racecourse to the town’s crematorium.

They were led by the Kellingley colliery band. Following up were NUM President, Arthur Scargill, Jack Taylor and MPs Geoff Lofthouse and Bill O’Brien. Joe’s coffin was escorted into the crematorium by a Scots piper, Gordon Queen, who played Scots Lament.

Family, friends and union officials packed the crematorium and the service was relayed outside by a p.a. system. Arthur Scargill described Joe as a ‘fantastic lad.’ He added: ‘He had unswerving loyalty to the union and its policies.’

On August 21, 1984, a line of police contained pickets in a side street opposite Allerton Bywater Colliery. A legal advice worker was amongst those monitoring policing at the colliery and he said: ‘It seems to me that the police action was likely to cause injury and was unnecessary in the circumstances.’

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said officers at Allerton Bywater had been involved in similar operations throughout the strike and their judgement would be relied upon for tactics and numbers used to contain pickets.

At the beginning of October 1984, it was reported that three police officers were injured in scuffles with 1,000 miners outside Woolley colliery.

The trouble flared as a lone working miner was escorted to the pit by police. Burning barricades were set up by pickets and police came under a barrage of stones. Material from a dry-stone wall and other rubble was used in a bid to block the approach road.

A police spokeswoman said she had no reports of any arrest or any serious injuries amongst the picketing miners. A police inspector was taken to hospital with a suspected broken ankle suffered when pickets were said to have pushed forward against the police line.

Several days after this incident the lone rebel miner, who was the first to return to work in the Barnsley area since the ‘back to work movement’ began, was attacked. Initially after working for a day, he had been persuaded to stay away. But changed his mind and continued to work. He was taken to Barnsley General Hospital for treatment, but later discharged.

Charlie Livingstone, an ex-paratrooper, twice blown up in Northern Ireland, was a striking miner in October 1984 with a wife and two children to support. But the guitar with which he passed idle hours during his shifts off duty in Belfast was being put to use.

He played at social evenings, concerts and other fund-raising events to raise cash to help feeding the people of Sharlston. When standing on street corners collecting in non-mining communities, he received taunts. But for every jibe there were a dozen people who contributed.

In February 1985, news came that for the previous ten months, Manvers’ pit canteen manageress, Kath Cresswell, had put in day’s shift at Swinton Civic Hall, serving up more than 500 dinners a day to strike families from Kilnhurst and Manvers pits. As an NUM member she was both striker and striker’s wife – husband Bill was a salvage worker at Kilnhurst.