A former Scottish miner has urged an ongoing inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave to progress as quickly as possible, warning that time is running out for those who were present at the violent clashes.
Robert Young, 83, was a miner and local trade union leader at Comrie Colliery in Fife who travelled to join the picket lines at Orgreave coking plant in Rotherham on 18 June 1984. Speaking at Durham's Miner Gala on Saturday, Young said: "If we don't do this quickly, there won't be many of us left who were at Orgreave."
The Battle of Orgreave
Violence broke out between police officers and miners outside the Orgreave coking plant on 18 June 1984 — one of the pivotal moments of the 1984–85 miners' strike. The striking miners wanted to stop lorries carrying coke to fuel the Scunthorpe steel furnaces, believing that disrupting production would help win their fight against pit closures and job losses.
More than 100 picketers and police officers were injured in the clashes. 95 men who had been picketing were arrested and faced trial on riot and unlawful assembly charges, but the case against them collapsed in court due to allegations that South Yorkshire Police had falsified evidence.
The 1984–85 Miners' Strike
The strike pitted thousands of miners and their trade union against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative government, which supported plans to shut 20 coal pits. About three-quarters of the country's 187,000 miners went on strike to oppose the pit closures, which were expected to mean 20,000 job losses.
The miners' eventual defeat paved the way for the privatisation of more nationalised industries and utilities. Almost all of the UK's underground coal mines were shut within the next 20 years, causing lasting unemployment and poverty in former mining areas.
Young's Account
Young, who was in his early 40s at the time, travelled from Scotland by bus with around 50 other miners. He arrived at Orgreave at around 07:00 BST and was given a police escort into the site on what he recalled as "a lovely morning", unaware of what would follow.
"I had shorts on, a t-shirt, and a pair of flip-flops," he said. "I wasn't dressed for the war that was to follow, we didn't realise the mess and the fights we were going to get into down there. It was the first time in my life I've been frightened of anything, I was frightened when the horses charged us and the police dogs had a go at us."
Young lost his job after the strike ended. He attended the Miner Gala with the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, a charity which supports deprived former pit villages.