Heartbreaking Miners’ Strike recollections from consuming squirrels to sinister calls

For the primary time, either side of the bitter dispute – the strikers and people branded ‘scabs’ for returning to work – are having their voices heard side-by-side.

Their highly effective tales are being informed by the National Coal Mining Museum and reveal horrifying tales of poverty with households compelled to outlive on squirrels. One placing miner even needed to eat their pet rabbit as a result of they’d “nothing else to put on the table”. While those that crossed the picket line informed how they lived in worry with mysterious and sinister cellphone warnings, saying: ‘We know where you live’.

One miner, who carried on working, used to maintain a pickaxe underneath his mattress. The strike started after the National Coal Board introduced in March 1984 that 20 pits would shut with the lack of 20,000 jobs. Miners got here above floor, leaving the pits, to struggle Tory chief Margaret Thatcher’s closure plans. Violence erupted on picket traces as 1000’s of police from all around the UK have been ferried into the coalfields. The dispute has left households and communities divided to today.

Exhibition curator Anne Bradley collected the first-hand accounts by means of a collection of interviews. Ms Bradley stated that her interviews confirmed that most of the outdated enmities are nonetheless there. And she is conscious that some guests will refuse to enter the elements of the exhibitions about those that went again to work. Ms Bradley stated: “We’re a national museum and we have to reflect what was happening in all the different coalfields in England. I think it’s quite a well-known story, the story of striking miners on the picket lines, and the policing.”

She stated “We don’t hear” the tales of those that selected to not strike or who could not due to the place that they have been in or the unions they belonged to. “This is a really good opportunity for us to diversify our collections, collect those stories and those voices while we still have the chance. We’d like to provide the opportunity for our visitors to perhaps have a little bit of empathy…”

She stated individuals have been “making decisions that they had no idea that 40 years on could still lead to them not speaking to members of their families, not speaking to friends. “We’re not asking anyone to alter their opinion of the strike however we’re hoping that individuals may simply cease and assume, perhaps have a look at a distinct viewpoint. I feel if we have completed that then we have completed job.”

Those who didn’t strike told her he was threatened because he was in ‘management’ during the strike. He said: “On one occasion, just after midnight when I was at work, my wife received a phone call saying ‘We know who you are, and we know where you live’. That obviously scared my wife significantly, and was presumably targeted at us just because I was in ‘management’… We never found out who made the call.”

Another stated of being confronted for breaking the strike: “It was the most horrendous thing and it was terrifying. There was all these people baying at you, y’know, shouting, spitting at you, throwing things at you… We used to have to wipe ourselves down ’cause we’d got all spit all over us”

A former ‘undermanager’ stated: “This was a tough time, from seeing families torn apart, horrible violence (strikers and police) and behind the scenes strategy by senior management to break the strike. Door knocking to get men to return, monitoring picket lines, making underground repairs to keep the pit open, learning to drive battle buses and much more.”

Another informed how his dad feared for his security after returning to work breaking the strike. “He kept a pickaxe handle under the bed at night for protection… I remember telling the support group that we were going to live with my parents for Christmas which was a lie because I was afraid to say he had gone back to work.”

One little one whose dad additionally labored through the strike stated: “He would go out early on a morning and walk right the way down to the bottom of the estate to get this bus…’ battle bus’, as they called it and there would be pickets on every street corner in every bus stop along the way. Standing and shouting abuse at him.” While others who did strike spoke of the hardships they suffered.

One recalled: “We supported one miner and his family, as much as we could, after he told us they had eaten their pet rabbit. I am still shocked about this 40 years later.” Another miner recalled how exhausting it was to place meals on the desk as strikers went door-to-door in cities and villages asking for handouts.

One stated: “The strike was hard – no money, hardly any food… I had two dogs and I can tell you, every day of the week they caught rabbit, pheasants, and even squirrels just to eat. I had just moved into my own Coal Board house at the start of the strike but was lucky enough to move back to my parents who supported me as best they could. I attended the picket line every day. My memories are fond ones of communities pulling together and people sharing the little they had.”

Another stated: “The income I got was £1.00 per day, that’s £5.00 a week picketing money. Friday came around, we got half a dozen eggs, my dad gave me a fiver. That’s all I got moneywise, no more. I used to go scavenging for coal, coke from old spoil tips to keep the house warm.” One former miner informed her of his recollections of being at The Battle of Orgreave, a violent conflict on June 18th, 1984 between these placing and police from South Yorkshire, The Metropolitan Police and different forces.

The Government has repeatedly dominated out calls for for an inquiry into the violent occasions. Scores of miners have been arrested, and plenty of have been injured, though all expenses have been later dropped. A miner there that day stated: “I was present at the Battle of Orgreave as it is now known and spent years arguing with people who weren’t there to uncover the truth of what actually happened and how the Government twisted and manipulated both photos and videos to paint the miners as the trouble causes. Why would anyone in their right mind charge at half a tonne of horse? Never mind a whole wall of them.”

CEO Lynn Dunning of the Wakefield Museum stated the goal was to have the voices of all these concerned represented. Ms Dunning informed the PA information company: “The exhibition is really to try and give a voice to as many different opinions and experiences as possible. Quite often we hear a lot from the men who were on strike. We wanted to tell those stories but, also, redress the balance a little bit this time by hearing from some of the men and their families who didn’t go on strike and the impact that had on them and how they were treated in their communities but, also, the miners who went back early.

“We’re all aware of the tales of individuals struggling to place meals on the desk, to pay their mortgages, and so forth. And some individuals did really feel the stress, because the strike went on, to return to work early.” Ms Dunning said: “It’s fairly stunning, even at this time, after 40 years, to listen to about any individual consuming their pet rabbit as a result of they’d nothing else to placed on the desk. Those are tales that all of us want to listen to and expertise.”

She said: “This exhibition takes the politics out of it and it is actually about what these individuals skilled and simply how troublesome it was. And, the long-term affect that that have has had on these households and people communities comes throughout actually strongly as effectively.”

She said: “It’s nonetheless such a uncooked subject. It’s nonetheless such an emotional subject for many individuals, what occurred to these communities socially, economically, and culturally. You can nonetheless see the affect of that in these communities at this time.”

The exhibition, titled 84/85 – The Longest Year, opens at the National Coal Mining Museum on Wednesday, March 6. Entry is free. More details can be found here.