The Miners Strike 1984

I remember the marches when I worked for a building society in our city centre. I also remember the number of miners who lost their homes because, despite every strategy available to help them, it became impossible for them to pay their mortgages. It was heartbreaking. I remember Orgreave too. My husband had been a miner in Wales before he joined the Army, and he had a great deal of sympathy for them at that time, but no respect for their leaders.

My emotions are so mixed, I doubt people who haven’t lived in a mining community could understand

My two cousins were miners. One went on strike, the other went to work. They fell out big time and still don’t speak to each other.

Anniebach

My emotions are so mixed, I doubt people who haven’t lived in a mining community could understand

True. It's hard to actually explain the devastation it caused to entire communities unless you lived in one.

And this was white privilege? We should never forget how the rich cruelly made their wealth from the working class who worked in appalling conditions particularly the miners. And there were mines everywhere, long since disappeared but the names live on in cities like Bristol and in the Somerset countryside.

I don’t think Scargill helped the miner’s cause. I remember the awful violent scenes on the telly between the miners and the police including horses which was horrific. The unions had become very powerful and Scratcher, sorry Thatcher was determined to smash them.

The unions were too powerful when Wilson was PM,

I remember the start of it all, going back to the three day week, under Edward Heath. I was a student then, and we (myself and four other students) lived in a flat and had to put money in the slot for electricity.And then we had to get candles for the power cuts. And it continued on and off throughout the seventies and eventually to the big strike under Thatcher.

1972 , the power cuts, Heath was brought down

It’s a hard watch but we lived amongst it. My granddad and great granddad were both miners and dad went into the army. We lived in the north east at the time and times were terrible. Families fell out with each other for life. One of our neighbours returned to work and our car was vandalised as we were mistakenly targeted by miners thinking my husband was the said miner who had returned to work. My kids were pelted with eggs and the police did nothing to help us. The riot vans and buses used to park near to our house. It was a horrible hateful time. I felt sorry for the poor mining families and still do. The strike was a total waste of time as less than 10 years later the pits were all closed. Horrible times.

My FIL worked through it too. My husband said neighbours used to spit at him He said it was awful.

Strike 1972 brought down Heath

1978 Winter of Discontent brought down Callaghan gave us
Thatcher

Miners strike 1974

Scargill was just a muck stirrer to put it mildly. He didn’t help the miners one bit.

Most of my family were Welsh valley miners. One died in the Senghenydd pit disaster and his body was never recovered.

Scargill was the other side of the Thatcher coin. Intransigent, arrogant and lacking humanity.

Agree

We were trying to put on a Gilbert and Sullivan show at the time of the power cuts and it was hit or miss if we managed to put on the show.

We were a Coal Merchant and this had a terrible impact on us too.. our lifetime family business was gone.

I well remember the miners strike. However, it has to be said that Labour closed more mines than Margaret Thatcher. Although there were less mines when she came to power so on a pro rata basis, maybe not. However my MiL was a steel workers wife and during the miners strike, she was asked to contribute to whatever collection was being made outside the local market. The request came from a woman who was smoking and my MiL’s response was a resounding No - saying that if you can afford to smoke etc and adding that why should I support you when you didn’t support the steel workers when they were on strike. A lot of the problems related to Scargill, in our valley there are still bad feelings between the Police and ex-miners.

Yes my Dad was a miner. He went down to Nottingham from County Durham when the mines there closed.
I was born in the back bedroom of the pit house we lived in.
I remember the miners strike very well - although my Dad was no longer a miner then. I remember going to Scarborough for the weekend and on the drive there, we came across a road full of protesting miners and police - it wasnt very pleasant at all.

I was Born and Brought up in a Mining Village in Leigh Lancashire .
Most of the men worked in the mine as did my Grandad & Dad.
I used to look out of my bedroom window and watch the Pit Headgear wind up coal to the surface .
Both my Grandad & Dad died a dreadful death through Mining disease .
Seeing someone you love gasping for Air is something l will never Forget.
I saw the Miners Strikes and how the Miners and Our family were treated , it separated so many families .
Thatcher had so much to answer for
Men and their family’s had so little to live on,
I will Never Forget how the Police treated the Miners,
I understand they were ordered to do a job but as a Young child seeing men beaten with Batons in front of you is something l will Never Forget.
These Men gave their everything for this Country and were treated like Animals .

MBM. Those mining villages near Leigh were devastated by the strike and closure of the pits. I agree it was awful damaging work, so was the loss of pride and income that followed 💙

Much led up to the miners strike of 1984 , the winter of discontent, rats in the streets, dead not buried , Callaghan made the daftest comment about it , ‘what crisis’ , gave Thatcher victory, Scargill chose to follow Gormley and didn’t
hold a national ballot

I remember it well living in a miner village in the north east my uncle was one of those miners lots of neighbours that weren’t miners would help out with food etc it was a really hard time. My uncle used to take me to the club when they were having meetings etc then send me home before they would march it’s something I will never forget

I remember feeling so glad we didn’t live in the UK in that dreadful Thatcher reign. I couldn’t believe the cruelty of the woman. We left at the time of the 3 day electricity business under Ted Heath, another horror.

In 1984 I was a single parent living in East Anglia with no TV and going through a divorce, so the miner’s strike didn’t touch my life and wasn’t something that I even really formed an opinion of at the time, except in one regard: There was some general talk of police brutality toward the miners which I simply didn’t believe could be the case. I still had a rosy view of the police a la Dixon of Dock Green.

Just a couple of years later I witnessed with my own eyes the police use horses to bear down on innocent marchers and watched as they used their batons indiscriminately. I still remember the absolute shock and fear I felt as I dragged my then 16 year old daughter away from the police to a place of safety.

I have close family and friends who are police officers so I know there are good and bad, but I have since educated myself about the miner’s strike and I believe the police were in the grip of some kind of politically induced ‘groupthink’ that enabled them to leave their good consciences behind as they ‘carried out orders’.