...miners' strike badges

The bitterest industrial dispute of my generation was undoubtedly the coal miners’ strike of 1984/5, which lasted some 363 days, involved 142,000 mineworkers, and saw three deaths from events surrounding the strike.

For a concise account of the dispute consult Wikipedia, UK Miners' strike (1984-85).

These badges reflect some aspects of the strike. The cheap circular ones were generally worn during the strike, the enamel ones issued later to commemorate it.

The badge (bottom right) records an incident at Mansfield colliery where peaceful pickets were said to have suffered an unprovoked attack by police on horseback, leading to a general melee, during which a hundred or more miners were arrested. The “55” refers to those charged with riot, assault or affray.

The badge (bottom left) was issued by the breakaway union, the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), which was formed principally to represent those who disagreed with the National Union of Mineworkers strategy during the dispute. The strike had been called without a full ballot of members, and many miners, especially in the Midlands collieries, did not support.it, and continued working.

The almost military nature of the strike is shown by this badge, issued to “veterans” of the Battle of Orgreave coke works on 18^th June 1984, showing a policeman on horseback ready to lash out at picketing miners.

   

The failure of the strike led to the eventual closure of more than a hundred a fifty pits, and the impoverishment of many pit villages and towns. Kellingley colliery (top right) lasted longer than most, and closed in December 2015, the last deep mine pit in the country.