Fig 1: 84/85 – The Longest Year at the National Coalmining Museum for England, Caphouse Colliery, Overton, near Wakefield, Yorkshire. 

84/85 – The Longest Year

84 /85 – The Longest Year, is a yearlong exhibition, 6th March 2024 to 3rd March 2025, at the National Coalmining Museum for England (NCMME) to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1984-85 miners strike. The exhibition considers the strike through memories and stories of miners and their families. This blog integrates pictorial recollections and reflections of the 1984-85 miners strike in the Nottinghamshire coalfield with exhibits from the 84/85 Longest Year exhibition.

84/85 -The Longest Year is on at the NCMME until 3rd March 2025 and is free to attend. More details at https://www.ncm.org.uk/whats-on/84-85/

Fig 2: Disclaimer at the start of the 84/85 – The Longest Year exhibition at the NCMME.

Fig 3: March 1984 calendar showing Silverwood Colliery miners, Yorkshire, on strike from 5th March 1984. This was the day prior to the National Coal Board (NCB) announcement of 4 millions tonnes cuts to coal production for the financial year 1984/85 & three days prior to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) National Executive Committee authorising NUM Area by Area strikes under National Rule 41.

Fig 4: NUM Yorkshire flying pickets at Bilsthorpe Colliery, Nottinghamshire, on the first day of picketing in the Nottinghamshire coalfield on Monday, 12th March 1984. Members of the Nottingham Area NUM were due to ballot on strike action later that week on 15th /16th March 1984, as authorised by the NUM NEC at their meeting on 8th March 1984. Planned deputations of Yorkshire NUM representatives to address special Branch meetings of Nottingham Area NUM members became inoperable once picketing began. Photo Credit – Chad newspaper

Fig 5: OS map at the 84/85 – Longest Year exhibition showing various colliery sites (market in black) to be picketed. Interestingly, in the north Derbyshire coalfield, Pleasley Colliery and Morton Colliery appear to be marked on the map. Pleasley had closed in December 1983 following its merger with Shirebrook Colliery and Morton was a minewater pumping site, the colliery having closed for production in 1965.

Fig 6: My foundations are Federations! From a poem, The NUM, by Sarah Wimbush, ‘Strike’, 2024. In contrast to Fig.4, Creswell Colliery NUM members, NCB North Nottinghamshire Area, picketing in the 1974 miners strike showing official authorisation. Photo Credit – Chad newspaper

Fig 7: 84/85 – The Longest Year exhibition at NCMME – recollections of a mass picket at Cotgrave Colliery during the 1984-85 miners strike.

Fig 8: Main details of a Nottingham Area NUM press release, 13th March 1984, the second day of picketing in the Nottinghamshire coalfield in the 1984-85 miners strike.

Fig 9: 84/85 – The Longest Year exhibition – details of violent picketing against an elderly Cotgrave miner during the 1984-85 miners strike.

Fig 10: Cotgrave Colliery, NCB South Nottinghamshire Area, the newest colliery in the Nottinghamshire coalfield, production having commenced in 1964.

Fig 11: Late 1960’s NCB documentation about Cotgrave Colliery when it had been in production around 4/5 years. The colliery lost money overall in its 32 years life and it never achieved the 1.4 million tons annual output projected at the start. Production ceased on 16th October 1992 during the Coal Crisis of 1992-94 with official closure being in March 1993. Source – David Amos collection

Fig 12: Part of the 84/85 Longest Year exhibition at the NCMME relating to the Nottinghamshire miners and the ballot issue.

Fig 13: Part of the 84/85 – Longest Year exhibition relative to the ballot issue in the 1984-85 miners strike.

Fig 14: Details of various NUM Area strike ballots and meetings taken in March 1984 during the first two weeks of the 1984-85 miners strike. Source: David Amos collection 

Fig 15: Trade union democracy, ballots or meetings?  Arthur Scargill addresses a meeting at Sutton-in-Ashfield in March 1984. Photo Credit – Chad newspaper.

Fig 16: Ballot box at Colliers Way in 2016, formerly the site of Babbington Colliery (1842-1986).  At the 1983 NUM Annual Conference an emergency resolution was passed with the aim of winning the wholehearted support of miners to opposed pit closures and all reductions in manpower. The NUM NEC was also authorised to conduct a national ballot at a time deemed to be most appropriate. This was official NUM policy as the 1984-85 miners strike broke early in March 1984. Souce – David Amos collection

Fig 17: The Three White Feathers as part of the 84/85 Longest Year exhibition at the NCMME, correspondence sent to the Annesley NUM Branch in early April 1984. ‘Some flock at dawn, piping their wishbones across Spencerland, battledore! battledore!’ From the poem, The Three White Feathers, by Sarah Wimbush in Strike, 2024. Source – David Amos collection

Figs 18a & 18b: 1984-85 miners strike chess set as part of the 84/85 Longest Year exhibition at the NCMME.

Fig 19: NCB Chairman, Ian McGregor (3rd left) on a visit to Bentinck Colliery, NCB South Nottinghamshire Area, in September 1984 during the 1984-85 miners strike. On the left is Jack Cheese, Coal Prep Plant control and 2nd left is David Crisp, Colliery Manager. Photo Credit – David Amos collection

Fig 20: Vandalised image of Margaret Thatcher as part of the 2019 Nottingham Trent University / Mine2 Minds Education travelling exhibition, ‘Dealing with the Past: Coal, Community & Change, 1965-2015’.

Fig 21: 84-85 – The Longest Year exhibition at NCMME – Legacies of the 1984-85 miners strike 40 years on.

Figs 22a & 22b: Legacies of the 1984-85 miners strike – A betrayal notion? – the spilt in the NUM and formation of the Nottinghamshire based Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) which followed in December 1985. Photo Credits – David Amos

Figs 23a and 23b: Black to Green – UK energy changes and the move away from fossil fuels. (Top) Clipstone Colliery and electricity pylon in the 1980’s and (below) Wind turbines near Rainworth, Nottinghamshire, on 4th December 2018. Photo credits – Chad newspaper and David Amos

Fig 24: Writing the history of the British nationalised coal industry (1947-1994) and the problem of the 1984-85 miners strike acting as a distorting lens. Photo Credit – David Amos

Fig 25: Silverhill Sunset, August 2024. Photo Credit – David Amos 

For more information on the 1984-85 miners strike in Nottinghamshire as portrayed through iconic images, press reports & documentation from the time, see ‘Coal, Conflict and Closures’ at https://miningheritage.co.uk/1984-85-miners-strike-in-notts

Blog by David Amos

Posted by Mining Heritage admin – 1st December 2024