A view from the milk float of life during the miners’ strike

IN 1974, following the collapse of the market in mechanical calculating machines when they were superseded by electronic models, I bought a milk round on the Warwick estate in Knottingley. Many of my customers were coal miners who worked at the nearby Kellingley colliery.

I have a great deal of respect for coal miners who did a very difficult job; they were people who, in my opinion, could be called the “salt of the earth”, giving a hard day’s work and, rightly, being entitled to a fair day’s pay. In my experience they were very good customers and good people.

Although the housing estate was not regarded as a supreme example for law and order, people used to ask me if I was ever worried when collecting the weekly milk bills, of being mugged, particularly on dark winter nights. This didn’t overly concern me as I knew that any such incident would see many coal miners coming to my immediate assistance. They were people who could be relied upon to help.

I operated the milk round until 1989 so experienced the whole year of the miners’ strike of 1984.

When it first started I believe everyone thought it would only last a few weeks and because of this belief the strike didn’t, initially, affect my milk round.

However, as the weeks turned into months, many customers were now encountering severe financial hardship. Many, many miners did not want to strike but they were denied a vote on this, particularly on whether the strike should continue for so long, but they were fearful of expressing their views due to threats and intimidation from a militant element of professional agitators. They had to consider the safety and general welfare of their families, with many having very young children unable to understand the situation.

As the strike entered its fourth month, customers began to cancel their milk orders as they could not afford to have a weekly milk bill and they began to buy their milk on a daily basis from elsewhere.

To a very small, one-man business like mine, the strike still cost me around £10,000. This was made up of the cancelled orders during the dispute, and afterwards with many customers not returning when the strike ended, as over such a long period they had become used to buying elsewhere. Other businesses, particularly those near the affected coal mines, suffered far greater losses and many went out of business.

The dreadful financial plight meant that many very decent miners were losing their hard-worked for possessions which had been bought recently, as these were repossessed by finance companies. I remember one family being “wiped-out” as their car, television, washing machine were all surrendered.

One, very distressed miner who returned to work after nine months as he could no longer support his family, told me he was having to park his car in a secret location to avoid it being vandalised and asked me, if I saw it, to not inform anyone.

Wherever possible, with customers who wished, I obtained credit and continued to deliver their milk knowing that it could only be paid for once the strike ended. No one could have expected the strike to last for a year and the calibre of the “normal” coal miner was very evident as I didn’t have a single bad debt, with them paying the built up bill in instalments in the year following the strike.

Can anyone picture the awful financial hardship normal miners had to endure, losing thousands of pounds of income, not allowed to vote on strike action and thus denied any opportunity to oppose the strike and all to advance the beliefs of a leader who seemed to have immunity from the deprivations they faced?

The strike wasn’t restricted to causing them financial ruin as it led, in some cases, to families being torn apart with warring fathers and sons having opposing views.

Many family rifts have never fully healed.

If ever there was a case of lions being led by a donkey, this strike was it!