I WAS born in Lower Broughton, Salford, in Sussex Street, next to Andrew Street, where Ewan McColl was born. My father, grandfather and uncles were all coalminers.

My uncle Harold worked at Bradford colliery and was a friend of the playwright Jimmy Allen. Mining and politics were my life from an early age.

I began work at Agecroft colliery in the late 1970s. My dad also worked at the pit. I took part in the strikes of 1969, 1972 and 1974 picketing with my dad — all great victories for the miners and the working class.

My first strike as a working miner was in February, 1981, when Thatcher threatened to close some pits. We walked out at Agecroft without a ballot.

We had a show of hands — unanimous, all out.

Thatcher withdrew the closures plan after miners across the coalfields came out on strike.

Thatcher and the Tory government were testing the resolve of the National Union of Mineworkers to fight pit closures. In fact the first meeting of Thatcher’s Cabinet in 1979 was about bringing down the NUM and its members.

When I started training we were told if you see smoke there is usually fire coming behind. 1981 was the smoke. 1984 came the fire.

At Agecroft we had a six-month overtime ban. We still had a large amount of coal on the stocking grounds which had been stockpiled. This coal would usually be crushed and sent by conveyor to the power station next to the pit.

What the National Coal Board and management were doing was importing what was called foreign coal from open-cast sites from the local area. This coal was crushed into fines to be burnt in the power station.

So much was building up on the pit grounds and the power station stocking grounds they were running out of space. I had never seen so much coal stocked. We soon knew why.

The Great Strike of 1984-85 started for me on Tuesday March 6 1984.

I arrived at the pit at 5am for a normal day shift on the tail gate rip. However when I arrived at the pit gates the canteen and the pit yard were full of men. I thought a disaster had occurred.

A loud voice shouted: “Meeting in the canteen.” The canteen was soon full and men overflowed into the wages office area.

We were then told a delegation had come over from Cortonwood pit in Yorkshire because it had been threatened with closure. The Cortonwood lads had gone home. We took a vote of hands to walk out in support of Cortonwood.

The night shift and day shift walked out — a unanimous decision. Agecroft was on strike. I went home and told my partner Helen I was on strike. We both thought it would soon be over like in 1981.

A week later I took a call from an NUM official from the pit. A meeting had been arranged to discuss the dispute.

I had been following the strike through the union and the media. I knew Jim Arnison, who was the Morning Star northern industrial reporter. He and the Morning Star were the best source of news on the dispute.

I went to the meeting at the pit expecting a discussion on tactics. I certainly expected we would be picketing Agecroft power station.

Instead the meeting was about a return to work and have a ballot in the Lancashire area. I was outraged.

I had seen pickets going to Nottinghamshire and other places and areas to ask for support against pit closures.

Agecroft went back to work. I and a few others did not. We were staying out, ballot or no ballot or, as the slogan went, bollox to ballots.

I went picketing elsewhere because most of the Agecroft men were working on. I remember going on picket with a couple of lads — students from Salford University and scabs just driving into the pit yard. Very dispiriting that was.

So I found myself going over to Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to join the action. I went to Shirebrook. A mass picket — solid, all out. Then we went over to Warsop pit, over railway lines, about a 20-minute walk. There must have been a couple of thousand men outside the pit gate that day.

We waited for the afternoon shift to arrive. I will never forget what happened. The Warsop men went into the pit hiding behind their wives and children.

We asked them to join the strike. “No,” they said. “Our manager’s told us our pit’s safe.”

They were looked at with contempt. They were not abused or threatened. We just said: “You stupid, naive fools.” Absolute selfish attitude and smug with it.

I went back to Agecroft to picket with a few students and some left groups, SWP. We had no contact or support from any NUM officials from the pit — appalling behaviour.

But we did have a visit from the poet Lemn Sissay, an unknown then. He came to support us and we ended up buying his book of poems. Lovely lad.

I phoned Yorkshire NUM office because when I tried to contact Lancashire I was told we had a ballot to continue to work.

Yorkshire NUM told me a mass picket would be taking place at Agecroft. I said I would be there. I went to the pit on the day of the picket.

When I arrived I met some NUM officials from Frickley pit, in Yorkshire.

A good few hundred strikers stood facing the pit gates and a mass of police stood facing them. I went to the NUM official to speak to the police at the pit gates.

I explained to him, a sergeant and his men, that I was on strike and that I and five other pickets would like to talk to the men going in to work. He agreed we could.

As we got to the pit gate the police attacked us without any provocation. I was punched in the face and lost a front tooth. I had my arms twisted and was dragged across the road and thrown into a fence and told “fucking stay there” or I would be arrested. A Newsline photographer took a picture when I was being assaulted.

Some lads from Cortonwood picked me up, gave me a lift home and gave me a medal — a Cortonwood tally which I still have.

I kept in touch with the Yorkshire lads and they told me another mass picket would be taking place in April. It was to attempt to stop the afternoon shift.

I arrived about 11am to find Agecroft Road full of cars and a mass of strikers on the pavement facing the pit. I stood on the pavement at the front of the picket, policemen facing us.

A bus came along the road. I was stood near the bridge which carried the coal conveyor to the power station. The bus had smashed windows, the result of an ambush. The bus carried scabs who had worked at the closed Hapton Valley pit at Burnley.

Here’s some information on Agecroft. It was in no way a village pit. It was only three miles from the centre of Manchester. It was in Salford/Pendlebury. However not many locals worked at the pit. It was one of the last receiver pits from pits that had closed, for example Bradford and the pits that had closed in the Wigan area.

As I stood on the road there was a surge from the back and I was pushed right into a copper. I gave myself a bit of momentum and pushed him on the floor, landing on top of him.

I was then grabbed by other cops and thrown head-first into a police van, taken to Park Lane police station, held for six hours and fortunately released without charge. I was threatened with violence and arrest if I attended any more pickets at the pit.

I went to the last well-attended picket at Agecroft in July when Ann Scargill came with the Women Against Pit Closures.
 
The Morning Star welcomes the recollections of the experiences of miners and their families during the 1984-5 strike and its aftermath. Send them to miners@peoples-press.com.