Anonymous on 29/1/2011 said: “ My father in law was a police man during the strike. He tells me that him and his colleagues were provided with packed lunches that they gave to the miners. ”
Anonymous on 29/1/2011 said: “ I was a paramedic in Rotherham during the strike and was one of the first ambulance crews to arrive at Orgreave in June 1984. We were kitted out with riot helmets and first aid kits and stood behind the police. The day of the battle of Orgreave will stay in my memory for ever. The injuries to unarmed miners fighting for their future were appalling. ”
Anonymous on 29/1/2011 said: “ The strike would be better forgotten. ”
Anonymous on 29/1/2011 said: “ My husband was making coal one day because coal was in short supply. When I came home from work every finger on his hands had a finger poke. He burnt his finger ends badly - he'd been trying to make coal from coal dust and cement! ”
Anonymous on 29/1/2011 said: “ My husband was a face worker at Ellington Colliery in Northumberland, and on strike the whole year. He was an eloquent and articulate speaker and someone paid for him to go to Denmark to speak on behalf of the Northumberland miners, and to collect money as the union funds had been frozen. His sister had married a Dane and while there he visited her but she told him to go home and go back to work. He retorted that she had forgotten her roots, as their dad had been a deputy at Ashington pit. I think she was embarrassed at photos of him in his miners helmet and NCB jacket. They made up after the strike and became friends again which is more than happened in some other families. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was working in a butchers at the time and I remember how little the miners had to spend on food to feed a whole family.
I feel that this exhibition is a good thing as I know that there are young people who were not around or too young to remember, who don’t know about the strike. It should be remembered. Gillian W ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I have lots of unpleasant memories of this strike, mainly my youngest son being knocked over by a police van going into the exit gate of the colliery and taking him to hospital without telling me or the wife. Just another episode they hushed up. Would I do it all again? Without hesitation. Chris W, N.U.M. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ The police were blatant bullies. If the G2 complaints today were in operation now the lists would be endless. Dogs and truncheons, feet and fists were commonplace. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Maggie Thatcher just wanted to destroy the unions. Now we import inferior foreign coal. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Many skills of engineering went with the closure as well as the digging. Social cohesion was also destroyed. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ When I was about 4 (1979) my dad was carrying me in a lift – Arthur Scargill got into the lift and I said “hello”, and he completely ignored me. What a mean man! ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I lived in Welwyn Garden City during the strike. Every Friday groups of miners were in our town centre collecting money for their support fund.
Despite Welwyn Garden City being a “Tory” area, the miners were welcomed and received support from many. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ We used to visit my in laws in Lancashire each weekend and I will never forget the sight of numerous coaches full of Metropolitan police heading northwards to confront the miners on their picket lines. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I remember also the earlier 1974 – 75 strike – Ted Heath – the 3 day week. This was more successful but in the end the pits were doomed by a combination of politics and the demands of capitalism and the markets. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Very upsetting to see all the police horses and men being beaten over the head and back. It broke families up... also communities suffered through people having to move to work elsewhere. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ My 4 year old son was going on a day trip organised by the miners’ wives. When the bus arrived he stopped at the kerb and shouted “scabs” thinking it was the bus he saw everyday taking scabs in to work. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Police earned fortunes in overtime. Scargill was right – Thatcher was a liar. Ordinary people who wanted to work (the enemy within) – never ever forget. The NE has never ever recovered socially OR economically. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ The misuse of thousands of police who should have been dealing with real criminals was a crime without parallel. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Vast fortunes were amassed on the backs of miners for centuries. They were not “The enemy within”, they were the bedrock of industrial Britain. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I can remember having to drive through the picket crowds at Kincardine was very frightening. I can remember how this strike divided communities. It caused social decline and ripped communities apart in a way they have not recovered from. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I remember coming through Peterlee and all the roads were blocked. The mounted plice with long truncheons charging the miners. There were also police in full riot gear. Very very scary. It was a shock to the system – I’d never seen riot gear before. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Driving on the M4 in the Cardiff area, traffic was very heavy – after a few miles we saw the cause of the delay – a convoy of 6 or 7 waggons transporting coal with a police escort of 20 or so vehicles. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ There are many stories which show how people are let down and downtrodden by those who are supposed to represent them and protect them. Over 25 years later communities have still not recovered. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Living in Bedford, we remember what was seen and heard given to everyone through the media; was this true. Local police were used during the strike, earning lots of overtime and would wave their pay-slips in front of the picketers; how unkind and cruel. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ At our local supermarkets – donations of tinned food were collected to the miners and their families. A hard time. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ A fight of two strong willed characters – Scargill and Thatcher. Both were wrong in their own way. The government did not do enough to replace jobs when the mines closed. You cannot run a business that makes no money. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was in the army as part of bomb disposal training in the Nottingham area. Our vans were like police vans, white with blue lights and as we were in army uniform it was then reported that the army was help the police, police the strike. John ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Sorry John but I saw three drunken men dressed in army combats accost a miners wife one night not 300 yards from where I live in Seaham and they were driving a police white van. - Another John ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was only young and didn’t live in a mining area but I remember seeing the rows of police, and the picket lines, on the television. It was one of the first bits of news I really noticed, I didn’t understand it. I know my father was very worried. I think it might have been that year that he told us we weren’t allowed to mention Maggie Thatcher during our holiday, because he wanted to relax! ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ We had to go home early from school because there was no coke for heating. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ The miners didn’t have a say about whether to go on strike – there was no ballot. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was in South Wales during the miners’ strike – the Rhondda Valley. I just remember many of my school friends not having enough money and some of them being called “scabs” because their dads went in to work. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ We used to connect the electric up to the car battery so that we had electric light in the house. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Easington was the first group set up very early in the strike and from there we visited each village to set up groups in Durham County and some outside the county. The strike was hard it was bad at times and it was sad and happy at times. Most of all the miners stood up against the capitalist. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ This was a difficult time for all miners and their families. I was just married when my husband went on strike We had no children at the time thankfully, but just paying bills was hard, we had to rely on family to help us. The miners were a very strong community and this tore them apart, it took a brave man to face and cross the picket line. They must have been desperate to go through the lines. It’s just a shame that it seems it was all for nothing. Sad isn’t it. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I went to Spennymoor Town Hall in 1992 to photograph Arthur Scargill as a supporter of the miners. I went to the front to get a better shot and as soon as Scargill noticed me he pointed at me and berated the press. He’d obviously mistook me for local newspaper staff. I got annoyed after about 4 or 5 finger points by the man so I told him he was mistaken and that it was rude to point. I didn’t get an apology. I supported the miners but I still think to this day Scargill was a fool. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ 1984 – very cold winter and very deep snow. I remember playing with my still best mate Barry and his dog Shandy in the snow. His mum worked at Bates Colliery in Blyth and all he got that Christmas was a radio alarm clock. My parents helped him with a new pair of school trousers too. Closing the collieries and all of the other industries relating to them is the crime of the century. Bates in Blyth was the driving force of the local economy. What now – bloody supermarkets and help centres. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I think Scargill was flawed but I can never forgive Mrs Thatcher and her Government. I worry now that we are sleepwalking into another period of social distress and disaster with a Cameron government. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Miners were the authors of their own misfortune. Despite having no mandate to strike – (there was no ballot) – they still followed Scargill like sheep. Scargill didn’t give a monkeys about the pits – he only wanted to make a name for himself by trying to be the biggest union leader to bring down a Tory Government. After 25 years of misery the miners deserve what they got. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ 25 years on I still feel bitter. Still won’t talk to a scab and can’t wait for Thatcher to stuff it. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was a proud striking miner who fought hard to keep my pit open. I stayed out until we had to go back officially. It broke my heart. I was proud that Westoe Colliery only had about 400 scabs out of a workforce of 2,400. It wasn’t the strike that ripped up the communities it was the Tory Government and Margaret Thatcher. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I also met Scargill and had my breakfast with him. He was a proud man who cared about the mining communities. He had a sense of social justice which was often maligned unfairly. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ We had to move in with our neighbours because the strike put our money on hold. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I know miners in the village of Thornley that worked at Easington Colliery and 25 years on after the strike they are still trying to recover our village Thornley. The last coal came out of that pit 39 years ago and the village is just starting to pick itself up now. It’s hard when you have to go through something like this in your life time. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I worked for a wholesale firm in South Shields. Whilst trying to deliver to shops by Westoe Pit I used to be stopped by pickets attempting to stop me dropping off stores at shops. It was a case of I could deliver to the shops or I could end up with no job. In the end I was allowed to drop off the goods As I said to the pickets, all I wanted to do was to deliver to the shops. I had no problem with the miners. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was at school during the strike, my dad was a miner at Dawdon and my mam helped in the soup kitchen. I remember being taken on daytrips to Seaton Carew with local children by NUM, and I remember getting shoes and clothes donated. We were told from Russian families. it seemed like a really fantastic time, though I remember asking shopkeepers for unwanted bread and veg. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ My friend and I worked at Whitburn workshops. I remember about ten years after the strike – we met some lads who he had served his time with – they both worked at Westoe, a militant pit. The first question they asked him before they would speak to him was “are you clean”?, meaning, did you go back before the end of the strike. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ When the strike really began to bite, coal was ‘sneaked’ in through ports like Immingham. I was on these colliers at the time – European coal. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was working in Glasgow during the 1984 – 85 Miner’s Strike. The police used to escort convoys of huge road wagons, carrying coal, at completely illegal speeds through small villages. (The railway workers refused to carry the coal but continued to bring in iron ore). One law for the Government, another for the rest of us. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ Maggie Thatcher ‘praised’ the steelworkers for keeping up production, but they knew she would have used any excuse to close them down – which indeed she did. ”
Anonymous on 15/2/2011 said: “ I was 18 at the time, an apprentice bricklayer. I would go to the local club in Pegswood and sIt with a blackcurrant and water all afternoon. I was not earning much but more than the men on strike. Would buy my miner mate some beers on a Friday night. He had nothing. Really sore times. ”
Anonymous on 20/2/2012 said: “ Anonymous on 20/2/2012 I was always a socialist until the strike, when I went to the first meeting to decide if we were going out on strike, and the union bully boys on stage said " we don't need a vote, do we 'cause we're all out on strike" and I had the strange idea that the ones who were losing the wages decided, not the paid lackeys, who still went out boozing and had holidays in cuba. Yes Thatcher was wrong, but Scargill helped destroy the communities. ”
SU0129 on 9/2/2013 said: “ I was working as a typist at the NCB Headquarters on Team Valley. Each day we went to work, our coaches dropped us off at the gates and we had to walk in to work. We were sworn at, shouted at and spat at by the pickets who had been shuttled in by bus from the collieries across the region. I was in my mid-20s at the time and after having worked there for 8 years in a job I loved, I was not prepared to put up with being treated like that and handed my notice in. The strike was over within a week of my doing so! ”
“ My father in law was a police man during the strike. He tells me that him and his colleagues were provided with packed lunches that they gave to the miners. ”
“ I was a paramedic in Rotherham during the strike and was one of the first ambulance crews to arrive at Orgreave in June 1984. We were kitted out with riot helmets and first aid kits and stood behind the police. The day of the battle of Orgreave will stay in my memory for ever. The injuries to unarmed miners fighting for their future were appalling. ”
“ The strike would be better forgotten. ”
“ My husband was making coal one day because coal was in short supply. When I came home from work every finger on his hands had a finger poke. He burnt his finger ends badly - he'd been trying to make coal from coal dust and cement! ”
“ My husband was a face worker at Ellington Colliery in Northumberland, and on strike the whole year. He was an eloquent and articulate speaker and someone paid for him to go to Denmark to speak on behalf of the Northumberland miners, and to collect money as the union funds had been frozen. His sister had married a Dane and while there he visited her but she told him to go home and go back to work. He retorted that she had forgotten her roots, as their dad had been a deputy at Ashington pit. I think she was embarrassed at photos of him in his miners helmet and NCB jacket. They made up after the strike and became friends again which is more than happened in some other families. ”
“ I was working in a butchers at the time and I remember how little the miners had to spend on food to feed a whole family.
I feel that this exhibition is a good thing as I know that there are young people who were not around or too young to remember, who don’t know about the strike. It should be remembered. Gillian W
”
“ I have lots of unpleasant memories of this strike, mainly my youngest son being knocked over by a police van going into the exit gate of the colliery and taking him to hospital without telling me or the wife. Just another episode they hushed up. Would I do it all again? Without hesitation. Chris W, N.U.M.
”
“ The police were blatant bullies. If the G2 complaints today were in operation now the lists would be endless. Dogs and truncheons, feet and fists were commonplace. ”
“ Maggie Thatcher just wanted to destroy the unions. Now we import inferior foreign coal. ”
“ Many skills of engineering went with the closure as well as the digging. Social cohesion was also destroyed. ”
“ When I was about 4 (1979) my dad was carrying me in a lift – Arthur Scargill got into the lift and I said “hello”, and he completely ignored me. What a mean man! ”
“ I lived in Welwyn Garden City during the strike. Every Friday groups of miners were in our town centre collecting money for their support fund.
Despite Welwyn Garden City being a “Tory” area, the miners were welcomed and received support from many.
”
“ We used to visit my in laws in Lancashire each weekend and I will never forget the sight of numerous coaches full of Metropolitan police heading northwards to confront the miners on their picket lines. ”
“ I remember also the earlier 1974 – 75 strike – Ted Heath – the 3 day week. This was more successful but in the end the pits were doomed by a combination of politics and the demands of capitalism and the markets. ”
“ Very upsetting to see all the police horses and men being beaten over the head and back. It broke families up... also communities suffered through people having to move to work elsewhere. ”
“ My 4 year old son was going on a day trip organised by the miners’ wives. When the bus arrived he stopped at the kerb and shouted “scabs” thinking it was the bus he saw everyday taking scabs in to work. ”
“ Police earned fortunes in overtime.
Scargill was right – Thatcher was a liar.
Ordinary people who wanted to work (the enemy within) – never ever forget.
The NE has never ever recovered socially OR economically.
”
“ The misuse of thousands of police who should have been dealing with real criminals was a crime without parallel. ”
“ Vast fortunes were amassed on the backs of miners for centuries. They were not “The enemy within”, they were the bedrock of industrial Britain. ”
“ I can remember having to drive through the picket crowds at Kincardine was very frightening. I can remember how this strike divided communities. It caused social decline and ripped communities apart in a way they have not recovered from. ”
“ I remember coming through Peterlee and all the roads were blocked. The mounted plice with long truncheons charging the miners. There were also police in full riot gear. Very very scary. It was a shock to the system – I’d never seen riot gear before. ”
“ Driving on the M4 in the Cardiff area, traffic was very heavy – after a few miles we saw the cause of the delay – a convoy of 6 or 7 waggons transporting coal with a police escort of 20 or so vehicles. ”
“ There are many stories which show how people are let down and downtrodden by those who are supposed to represent them and protect them. Over 25 years later communities have still not recovered. ”
“ Living in Bedford, we remember what was seen and heard given to everyone through the media; was this true. Local police were used during the strike, earning lots of overtime and would wave their pay-slips in front of the picketers; how unkind and cruel. ”
“ At our local supermarkets – donations of tinned food were collected to the miners and their families. A hard time. ”
“ A fight of two strong willed characters – Scargill and Thatcher. Both were wrong in their own way. The government did not do enough to replace jobs when the mines closed. You cannot run a business that makes no money. ”
“ I was in the army as part of bomb disposal training in the Nottingham area. Our vans were like police vans, white with blue lights and as we were in army uniform it was then reported that the army was help the police, police the strike. John ”
“ Sorry John but I saw three drunken men dressed in army combats accost a miners wife one night not 300 yards from where I live in Seaham and they were driving a police white van. - Another John ”
“ I was only young and didn’t live in a mining area but I remember seeing the rows of police, and the picket lines, on the television. It was one of the first bits of news I really noticed, I didn’t understand it. I know my father was very worried. I think it might have been that year that he told us we weren’t allowed to mention Maggie Thatcher during our holiday, because he wanted to relax! ”
“ We had to go home early from school because there was no coke for heating. ”
“ The miners didn’t have a say about whether to go on strike – there was no ballot. ”
“ I was in South Wales during the miners’ strike – the Rhondda Valley. I just remember many of my school friends not having enough money and some of them being called “scabs” because their dads went in to work. ”
“ We used to connect the electric up to the car battery so that we had electric light in the house. ”
“ Easington was the first group set up very early in the strike and from there we visited each village to set up groups in Durham County and some outside the county. The strike was hard it was bad at times and it was sad and happy at times. Most of all the miners stood up against the capitalist. ”
“ This was a difficult time for all miners and their families. I was just married when my husband went on strike We had no children at the time thankfully, but just paying bills was hard, we had to rely on family to help us. The miners were a very strong community and this tore them apart, it took a brave man to face and cross the picket line. They must have been desperate to go through the lines. It’s just a shame that it seems it was all for nothing. Sad isn’t it. ”
“ I went to Spennymoor Town Hall in 1992 to photograph Arthur Scargill as a supporter of the miners. I went to the front to get a better shot and as soon as Scargill noticed me he pointed at me and berated the press. He’d obviously mistook me for local newspaper staff. I got annoyed after about 4 or 5 finger points by the man so I told him he was mistaken and that it was rude to point. I didn’t get an apology. I supported the miners but I still think to this day Scargill was a fool. ”
“ 1984 – very cold winter and very deep snow. I remember playing with my still best mate Barry and his dog Shandy in the snow. His mum worked at Bates Colliery in Blyth and all he got that Christmas was a radio alarm clock. My parents helped him with a new pair of school trousers too. Closing the collieries and all of the other industries relating to them is the crime of the century. Bates in Blyth was the driving force of the local economy. What now – bloody supermarkets and help centres. ”
“ I think Scargill was flawed but I can never forgive Mrs Thatcher and her Government. I worry now that we are sleepwalking into another period of social distress and disaster with a Cameron government. ”
“ Miners were the authors of their own misfortune. Despite having no mandate to strike – (there was no ballot) – they still followed Scargill like sheep. Scargill didn’t give a monkeys about the pits – he only wanted to make a name for himself by trying to be the biggest union leader to bring down a Tory Government. After 25 years of misery the miners deserve what they got. ”
“ 25 years on I still feel bitter. Still won’t talk to a scab and can’t wait for Thatcher to stuff it. ”
“ I was a proud striking miner who fought hard to keep my pit open. I stayed out until we had to go back officially. It broke my heart. I was proud that Westoe Colliery only had about 400 scabs out of a workforce of 2,400. It wasn’t the strike that ripped up the communities it was the Tory Government and Margaret Thatcher. ”
“ I also met Scargill and had my breakfast with him. He was a proud man who cared about the mining communities. He had a sense of social justice which was often maligned unfairly. ”
“ We had to move in with our neighbours because the strike put our money on hold. ”
“ I know miners in the village of Thornley that worked at Easington Colliery and 25 years on after the strike they are still trying to recover our village Thornley. The last coal came out of that pit 39 years ago and the village is just starting to pick itself up now. It’s hard when you have to go through something like this in your life time. ”
“ I worked for a wholesale firm in South Shields. Whilst trying to deliver to shops by Westoe Pit I used to be stopped by pickets attempting to stop me dropping off stores at shops. It was a case of I could deliver to the shops or I could end up with no job. In the end I was allowed to drop off the goods As I said to the pickets, all I wanted to do was to deliver to the shops. I had no problem with the miners. ”
“ I was at school during the strike, my dad was a miner at Dawdon and my mam helped in the soup kitchen. I remember being taken on daytrips to Seaton Carew with local children by NUM, and I remember getting shoes and clothes donated. We were told from Russian families. it seemed like a really fantastic time, though I remember asking shopkeepers for unwanted bread and veg. ”
“ My friend and I worked at Whitburn workshops. I remember about ten years after the strike – we met some lads who he had served his time with – they both worked at Westoe, a militant pit. The first question they asked him before they would speak to him was “are you clean”?, meaning, did you go back before the end of the strike. ”
“ When the strike really began to bite, coal was ‘sneaked’ in through ports like Immingham. I was on these colliers at the time – European coal. ”
“ I was working in Glasgow during the 1984 – 85 Miner’s Strike. The police used to escort convoys of huge road wagons, carrying coal, at completely illegal speeds through small villages. (The railway workers refused to carry the coal but continued to bring in iron ore). One law for the Government, another for the rest of us. ”
“ Maggie Thatcher ‘praised’ the steelworkers for keeping up production, but they knew she would have used any excuse to close them down – which indeed she did. ”
“ I was 18 at the time, an apprentice bricklayer. I would go to the local club in Pegswood and sIt with a blackcurrant and water all afternoon. I was not earning much but more than the men on strike. Would buy my miner mate some beers on a Friday night. He had nothing. Really sore times. ”
“ Anonymous on 20/2/2012
I was always a socialist until the strike, when I went to the first meeting to decide if we were going out on strike, and the union bully boys on stage said " we don't need a vote, do we 'cause we're all out on strike" and I had the strange idea that the ones who were losing the wages decided, not the paid lackeys, who still went out boozing and had holidays in cuba. Yes Thatcher was wrong, but Scargill helped destroy the communities. ”
“ I was working as a typist at the NCB Headquarters on Team Valley. Each day we went to work, our coaches dropped us off at the gates and we had to walk in to work. We were sworn at, shouted at and spat at by the pickets who had been shuttled in by bus from the collieries across the region. I was in my mid-20s at the time and after having worked there for 8 years in a job I loved, I was not prepared to put up with being treated like that and handed my notice in. The strike was over within a week of my doing so! ”