Miners strike 1984

[junglie2022]

I can remember seeing "We used to call the duff diggers" coming from where Hylton colliery stood there was still loads of coal lying around they they used to get from the bank sides on there cross bars on there bikes with bags filled --That place is now Hylton retail park --Many a local kids play ground that joined the riverbank --I remember that there wasn't one dead tree anywhere around here they were all chopped up and used for the fire

The daft lads chopped loads of living ones down too round our village, i came round a corner on my Raleigh chopper racing two mates down a bank & had to swerve to avoid one they'd left across the road that was too & hit gravel causing me to slide 30 feet & being covered in gravel rash all down one side, my nana cleaned all the gravel out & then put iodine on which was worse that the crash.....lol.

 

[junglie2022]

Yes mate and that is one of the reason's that pit villages always had good leek growers --all the free duff and coal to keep the fires burning

That leek pudding was delicious at the leek club do's at the workingmans club every year.

 

[zakdingel]

That leek pudding was delicious at the leek club do's at the workingmans club every year.

Yes i still love a leek pudding --i loved going to the veg and flower shows at the workingman club "now also long gone" same as the allotments now new houses

 

[Grey Man]

I was told that one reason that was hushed up in why they wanted the mines shut --was that most of the top governments Torrie peers and donators Had all bought big shares in coal mines overseas --and if they had the UK ones shut they could get better prices for importing the coal It all makes sense when you think how it went so quickly

No doubt various MP's had their fingers in the pie, but that was the payoff, not the main reason. That was to destroy the British coal industry in order to make way for EU imports. (The same trick was worked on milk, eggs and a variety of other products).

Vast quantities of British money could then be legitimately transferred to basket case countries in order to keep them onside.

 

[subzeer0]

I was in that strike...and the one in the 70's...divided a lot of men

 

[tonyghost]

I lived through it & the guy who collects the rents for out allotments had his skull smashed in by a mounted cop as he was at the back of the crowd running away at Orgreave. Still suffers from the splinters left in his brain. I remember riding down to stonehenge free festival that summer & seeing 18 buses full of SPG going north on the M1 to orgreave or one of the big bashes & saying to my girlfreind on the back "See that, we'll be next." Next year the "battle " of the Beanfeild happened. Good video of that on youtube too btw.

I was there on that shocking day and was put into shock by the police and military plus the BBC actions that day.
SHOCKING.

 

[Birchy]

What a depressing watch that was !

 

[JacquesC]

This brings to mind two excellent films IMHO about the period and events, in which you can get a feel of what miners went through.
All with excellent soundtracks to boot!
Brassed Off
including the memorable :
"What's He doing? He can take John Lennon. He can take those three young lads down at Ainsley Pit. He's even thinking of taking my old man. And Margaret bloody Thatcher lives! What's He sodding playing at, eh?”

[talking about God]
Stephen Tompkinson as Phil

and Billy Elliott

 

[Sniper1968]

In late 1983 I received a letter from NCB Silverwood Colliery stating that I was to report to The Colliery on Monday 28th May 1984.In April 1984 I received a letter stating my start date was postponed until further notice.
I left school on Friday 25th May, my 16th Birthday.
I was Picketting with my dad,uncles and cousins on Monday 28th May, my intended start day.Picketted most days until 18th June.The battle of Orgreave.I stopped after that day and it caused a rift between my dad and myself meaning we’ve rarely spoken since then and not at all for the last 16 years.
I’m knocking on 56 now and still hate Thatcher and the Tories.It may have 40 years ago but what I witnessed that day will stick with me always.

 

[Sniper Kitty]

Some bitter memorys, Remember Thatcher praising the so called independent union of mineworkers (Scabs)
and some years later the two founders did time for stealing from the unions welfare fund.
Scargill was accused of everything bar being called the Anti-Christ (Probably was to the torys)
Tax fiddling etc all proved false allegations.
Some of the so called Tory Wets thought Maggie went too far destroying the pit communities.
pity non had the guts to challenge the old Witch.

 

[zakdingel]

They keep saying we need more power supplies --they can burn coal in power station's these days much cleaner that in the past and filter all the bad stuff before it gets into the air ---and there is tones of coal left down there enough to last more than 100 years Technology has moved on much more since that last pits closed --there is more workforce available these days with the extras landing on our shores daily --So why not open up deep coal mines again surly that has to be a way

 

[tonyghost]

The film Kess is more in keeping with the past events.

 

[JoeHeugh]

Haven't seen the programme yet so will be interesting to watch. I wasn't a miner but I remember seeing some trouble, usually things would start calmly with a bit of pushing and shoving and the odd arrest then the atmosphere would change, probably when things started to get thrown. The warning sign was when the police helmets changed from single strap to a yoke harness, I never figured out whether they changed their helmets or the men, anyway once the yokes were out you knew trouble was coming. Their favorite tactic seemed to be to target a number of blokes (particularly anyone with a camera) say 5 or so back in the crowd and then a bunch of officers would charge and beat the hell out of them. This would create a space as people tried to get out of the way which the police line would then try to beat a way into. It was all pretty brutal.

Another abiding memory was driving down the M1 past Derbyshire worrying I was going to run out of petrol as every exit for at least 50 miles was blocked by you know who.

And then of course there was coming back to the alternative reality peddled by the BBC (ITV wasn't quite as biased).

Coal not Dole? These days for many young men in pit villages it's ESA and heroin. Do I sound bitter?

 

[zakdingel]

This brings to mind two excellent films IMHO about the period and events, in which you can get a feel of what miners went through.
All with excellent soundtracks to boot!
Brassed Off
including the memorable :
"What's He doing? He can take John Lennon. He can take those three young lads down at Ainsley Pit. He's even thinking of taking my old man. And Margaret bloody Thatcher lives! What's He sodding playing at, eh?”

[talking about God]
Stephen Tompkinson as Phil

and Billy Elliott
View attachment 397282

Class just bloody class both of them

 

[Chris6868]

I remember it well I was 19 and a member of the GMBU ..I’m one of thatchers children…mass unemployment bankruptcies….football yobbos …..thank the lord for the page 3 girls

 

[2506sendero]

This brings to mind two excellent films IMHO about the period and events, in which you can get a feel of what miners went through.
All with excellent soundtracks to boot!
Brassed Off
including the memorable :
"What's He doing? He can take John Lennon. He can take those three young lads down at Ainsley Pit. He's even thinking of taking my old man. And Margaret bloody Thatcher lives! What's He sodding playing at, eh?”

[talking about God]
Stephen Tompkinson as Phil

and Billy Elliott
View attachment 397282

Not enough superlatives for those 2 films

 

[junglie2022]

No doubt various MP's had their fingers in the pie, but that was the payoff, not the main reason. That was to destroy the British coal industry in order to make way for EU imports. (The same trick was worked on milk, eggs and a variety of other products).

Vast quantities of British money could then be legitimately transferred to basket case countries in order to keep them onside.

But most of the coal they imported came from columbia & south africa ?........not part of the Eu as far as i'm aware......

 

[Wizzygoth]

Thatcher was responsible for the beginning of the destruction of the British industry....be it heavy industry or farming...they all got a hit.
That decline continued throughout her tenure. Blair finished /completed the destruction.
She also introduced/ applied the police state principles. Setting a rift between the people and the police as well as people verses people.
It is shocking that in 1965 83% of our GDP came from manufacturing....it's now less than 7% ...seriously! for a population of UK size!
Our GDP now is services, mainly financial...should that go belly up...(the French are trying to steal that from us already) we will be asking Greece and Albania for help.

 

[Mitch94]

i can't really comment with being born in the 90's but one thing i don't understand is why they closed the mines in the first place when we still have a need for it even to this day. i always thought they where empty but after talking to my dad about the tv show he told me about the chatterley whitfield colliery about 5 mins away from me and its still loaded with coal and equipment (and after a quick google search) found out we import 6.4 million tones on coal each year so it can't be ecological thing.

 

[junglie2022]

I was in that strike...and the one in the 70's...divided a lot of men

Aye I was one of the few in the village to still speak to an old guy in our cul de sac that went back to work near the end, the hypocrites came out to stand at the top of the road when he was buried last year too......His knickname was the Cat as he was so good at lifting stuff from the pit......lol.