On March 5, 1984, Yorkshire miners walked out after the National Coal Board announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery, Barnsley.
What followed was a year in which the strike divided communities and shaped British history.
The Battle of Orgreave – the bloodiest day of the strike – saw miners and hundreds of officers from South Yorkshire Police and other forces clashing at a British Steel coking plant near Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
Officers on the day carried riot shields and batons, and were pictured bearing down on strikers on horseback. Protestors were pictured afterwards covered in blood.
It was followed by the attempted prosecution of miners for rioting.
A report in 2015 by the police watchdog, the IOPC, said there was “evidence of excessive violence by police officers, a false narrative from police exaggerating violence by miners, perjury by officers giving evidence to prosecute the arrested men, and an apparent cover-up of that perjury by senior officers”.
Hundreds of people are expected to attend a rally by the Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign on June 18, 2024, on the actual 40th anniversary of the clash, where they will call for a public inquiry into police conduct.
