Photos capture Battle of Orgreave 41 years after year-long Miners' Strike ended

On March 5, 1984, Yorkshire miners walked out after the National Coal Board announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery, Barnsley.

The protest grew into the largest instance of industrial action the UK’s history as miners stood against the planned closure of 20 nationalised coal mines by Margaret Thatcher’s Government - one that divided communities, shaped British history and took an entire year to end.

But, 41 years ago, on March 3, 1985, the strike formally came to an end when the National Union of Mineworkers, faced with the reality that workers were going hungry without wages or depleted reserves of union pay, narrowly voted to end the dispute without a settlement.

The defeat was a major victory for Thatcher’s Government, and one that drastically reduced the influence of unions in the UK even in the present day.

The year of action took in June 18, 1984 - better known as The Battle of Orgreave. It was the bloodiest day of the strike, which 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”.

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