How Yorkshire miner's marched back to work with their head helds high after strikes

The Kent men were continuing their strike to demand an amnesty for sacked colleagues. When the Kent pickets were met, Arthur Scargill walked away before telling the press: ‘I don’t cross picket lines.’

By contrast, miners were led back to Kellingley colliery by union officials, with banners flying.

It took 40 minutes to complete the walk of several miles from the local social club to the pit gates and the men were accompanied by supporters, their wives and children.

An almost carnival atmosphere prevailed for much of the march, but as the procession passed the homes of strike-breakers, and a knot of police, there was vicious chanting.

As they approached the pit gates all united behind a chorus of ‘Arthur Scargill, we’ll support you ever more.’

During the ensuing years, Yorkshire mining continued to be featured regularly in the news.

‘A £2m scheme to create the country’s finest mining museum [at Caphouse colliery] was launched in Yorkshire yesterday,’ said the Yorkshire Post of December 6, 1985.

Production at the pit had stopped a few weeks earlier and the Yorkshire Mining Museum Trust was planning to turn the colliery into a working museum.

The project was a joint effort run by the South and West Yorkshire County Councils, Wakefield and Kirklees District Councils and the National Coal Board.

Predicatably, after the strike, waves of pit closures followed. Cortonwood miners were pictured on October 25, 1985 as they completed the last shift.

Earlier in the month, the workforce had voted to abandon the struggle against the pit’s closure by a three to one majority.

The major factor in the decision to abandon the fight had been financial, with the greatest pressure bearing on the men who wanted to opt for voluntary redundancy, take their pay and try to build a future in other industries.

The Cortonwood NUM branch secretary said that men in that position had been told they could lose thousands of pounds if they were not put on notice immediately.

The Cortonwood site has since been converted into a shopping and leisure area.

A headline from Friday November 29 1993 shouted: ‘Goodbye to all that as Frickley Closes.’ An article said that sadness, resignation and relief were some of the emotions as one of West Yorkshire’s last three pits clocked off for the last time.

The majority of the 700 men at Frickley voted to accept enhanced pay offs from British Coal which had accelerated the closure of the pits.

It was expected that Frickley’s closure was to have a devastating effect on South Elmsall’s economy. Kevin Jones, 16 years a coalface worker, said it ‘was one of the saddest days of my life’.

On March 10, 1992, the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that more than 550 miners from the doomed Allerton Bywater pit were to converge on Leeds during Friday (March 13) when the city was to hold a tribute evening to those who had devoted their lives to the industry.

A fleet of seven double-decker buses plus a number of coaches were to carry the miners from Castleford bus station to Leeds Town Hall where Council chiefs planned a £5,000 gala evening to mark the end of deep coal mining in Leeds.

The Allerton Bywater NUM intended to bestow a special gift on Leeds – their elaborate banner. At around 8pm members of the NUM committee were to raise the six foot by nine foot banner, which denoted more than 100 years of the NUM at Allerton.

Then, march with it for the last time, before presenting it to Council leader, John Tricket.

A miner carried a symbolic piece of coal after finishing his final shift at Wistow colliery on May 13, 2004.

UK coal said that in previous weeks, miners at the last of the 130 faces to be worked at Wistow since production began 21 years earlier had to contend with geological faulting, roof falls, and inflows of water.

Of the 120 miners left at Wistow, 40 were to be made redundant. Another 40 would transfer to the remaining Selby mines and the remaining 40 would stay at Wistow to salvage equipment for other UK Coal mines.

The NUM said it was a ‘very sad’ day for the coal industry.

There were several protests and attempts to keep collieries open and the protesters included women and children.

The country’s first pit-gate camp was set up outside Markham Main colliery, Armthorpe early in 1993 by Doncaster Women Against Pit closures.

Seen outside the protest camp January 11, 1993 were Brenda Nixon, Aggie Curry, Lizzie Virago and Anne Scargill.

On March 26, 1993, children, each carrying a placard bearing the name of a colliery, assembled outside Houghton pit gates; each pit had CLOSED stamped over it.

The rally organised by Women Against Pit Closures, was arranged to show the huge number of mining communities devastated by pit closures and highlighted the threat to Houghton, Grimethorpe and Markham Main.

In a report published by the NUM and NACODS on April 26 1993, it was stated that Houghton Main had reserves of 20.9 million tonnes and an economic life of 52 years. Unfortunately, all this was in vain as Houghton closed at the end of 1993.

A campaign to reopen Thurcroft colliery began shortly after closure at the end of 1991, with redundant miners forming Thurcroft 92 Ltd. But, at the beginning of October 1992, workmen sealed the fate of the Thurcroft mining dream.

Thousands of tonnes of concrete were poured into the abandoned pit workings, ending forever the hope that it could be reopened as a workers’ co-operative.

As work began, Chris Mallander, the man who led Rotherham Council’s efforts to help the miners, condemned British coal and the Government for destroying the pit.

Following colliery closures, the former land was developed and some of the clearance work was quite dramatic.

A landmark went up in a cloud of smoke in January 1986 as a 100ft high boiler house chimney at Dodworth was demolished.

For a time on February 21, 1993, the M1 near Barnsley was closed as the former Woolley colliery ‘washer’ was demolished by a controlled explosion.

Later in the year, traffic was stopped again when the coal preparation plant came crashing down.

Pictured looking at plans for the first phase of the £6 million redevelopment of the Bentley colliery site in June 1998 were Dianne Williams, Bentley Central Councillor; Ian Bramley, English Partnerships senior development executive; and chief engineer for IMC (International Mining Construction), Graham Agnew.

The first phase of the project was a £1.3 million land reclamation scheme by English Partnerships, aimed to provide a 25-acre recreation and leisure area and pave the way for new homes. The pithead buildings had already been demolished.