Miners Picket Port Talbot
Maerdy Women’s Support Group.
Distributing food packages to striking miners and their families
Coal Picking Maerdy
Peter Harries, Young Miner Mardy Colliery
The Picket Line, Penrikyber Colliery.
Tony Benn MP addressing a Miners Rally in Cardiff.
Miners Picket Llanwern Steel Works.
Early Morning Picket
Arthur Scargill, N.U.M. President. Miners Rally Treorchey
Women and Children Picket the Welsh Office
Alun ‘Massum’ Jones. The march back to work, Maerdy – 5 Mar
Miners’ Rally. Mansfield.
Miners Children at Rally
Womens Support Group.
Miners barricade the N.U.M.
Miners Being Arrested
Police Horses Charge Through Miners Picket Line.
Miners Picket Orgreave
Picket Line – Orgreave Coking Plant.
Turn Orgreave Into Saltley.
Young Socialists demonstrate at the Conservative Party Conferenc
Miner, Keith Blanchard Being Arrested. Marine Colliery.
Injured Picket
Orgraeve Coking Plant
Police Arrest Picket
Miners Barricade Roadway to Stop Police Charges
The First Cage Down
NUM Miners Delegation at the 1984 TUC Conference.
Margaret Thatcher PM, applauded after her final Speech to the 19
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Miners Picket Port Talbot
Maerdy Women’s Support Group.
Distributing food packages to striking miners and their families
Coal Picking Maerdy
Peter Harries, Young Miner Mardy Colliery
The Picket Line, Penrikyber Colliery.
Tony Benn MP addressing a Miners Rally in Cardiff.
Miners Picket Llanwern Steel Works.
Early Morning Picket
Arthur Scargill, N.U.M. President.  Miners Rally Treorchey
Women and Children Picket the Welsh Office
Alun ‘Massum’ Jones.  The march back to work, Maerdy - 5 Mar
Miners’ Rally.  Mansfield.
Miners Children at Rally
Womens Support Group.
Miners barricade the N.U.M.
Miners Being Arrested
Police Horses Charge Through Miners Picket Line.
Miners Picket Orgreave
Picket Line - Orgreave Coking Plant.
Turn Orgreave Into Saltley.
Young Socialists demonstrate at the Conservative Party Conferenc
Miner, Keith Blanchard Being Arrested. Marine Colliery.
Injured Picket
Orgraeve Coking Plant
Police Arrest Picket
Miners Barricade Roadway to Stop Police Charges
The First Cage Down
NUM Miners Delegation at the 1984 TUC Conference.
Margaret Thatcher PM, applauded after her final Speech to the 19
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Strike84

In 1984 I spent 12 months photographing the Miners’ Strike in the UK. The dispute started when the Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Yorkshire. This was to be the first of 20 pit closures with the loss of 20,000 jobs. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) responded by calling for a national strike.

At it’s height 165,000 miners were out on strike. They were supported by people from all over the world. In many communities miners’ wives pushed the struggle forward, joining picket lines and arranging communal food kitchens. The state responded by putting more and more police into the coal fields. After 51 weeks on strike, a special delegate conference of the NUM voted by 98 to 91 votes to return to work. These pictures document that struggle.

There is a dedicated website for this work at www.strike84.co.uk