Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant'
12th March 2012, 12:09
More than half the country's 187,000 mineworkers went o strike. Miners in Yorkshire and Kent were the first to down tools that morning - later that night they had been joined by colleagues in Scotland and South Wales.
The trouble began over an announcement by Chairman of the Coal Board Ian MacGregor six days earlier that 20 uneconomic pits would have to close, putting 20,000 miners out of work.
Miners at Cortonwood colliery in Yorkshire - the first earmarked for closure - walked out at midnight on 5 March in protest at the plans.
National Union of Mineworkers president Arthur Scargill is called on members across the country to join the action. He was relying on flying pickets to drum up support.
(The miners' strike lasted a year and was one of the longest and possibly most damaging industrial disputes ever seen in Britain.
The strike only began to crumble when the NCB offered miners various pay incentives to return to work before Christmas. On 3 March 1985, the NUM's executive narrowly voted for a return to work.)
The trouble began over an announcement by Chairman of the Coal Board Ian MacGregor six days earlier that 20 uneconomic pits would have to close, putting 20,000 miners out of work.
Miners at Cortonwood colliery in Yorkshire - the first earmarked for closure - walked out at midnight on 5 March in protest at the plans.
National Union of Mineworkers president Arthur Scargill is called on members across the country to join the action. He was relying on flying pickets to drum up support.
(The miners' strike lasted a year and was one of the longest and possibly most damaging industrial disputes ever seen in Britain.
The strike only began to crumble when the NCB offered miners various pay incentives to return to work before Christmas. On 3 March 1985, the NUM's executive narrowly voted for a return to work.)