Your memories of The Strike

Rather than one lad writing thousands of words for WSB on it, I thought it'd be nice to have lots of different people's memories of The Strike with just a few sentences for each.

If you were about then what do you think of when someone mentions The Strike? If anyone's got any memories of BFC in that period it'd be quality.

Cheers

 

I was only a little lad just started pre school, the things that stand out for me is a big pan of ash on a low heat all day every for a full winter, its all we ate, throwing a tatty vegetables and a tin of cornbeef in other every morning one day with pancake one day with Yorkshire pudding and dumplings at weekend all rubbish and waste food potato peel and such like going on fire along with old shoes one of the internal doors and garden fence at the back, its was hard looking back but its a part of growing up that makes me appreciate what i've got now but at the time a knew no different that's what I thought life was

 

I remember my Mum purposely turning the alarm clock off so my Dad couldn't go picketing in Nottingham. I also remember my Dad growing extra veg in his allotment to give to people who were in need because of the strike.

When someone mentions the strike I always remember my Mum and Dad coming in one evening and my Mum was very upset. They'd been in the shop and the police had a go at my father for no reason, they'd recognised him as a miner as he was wearing badges that were around at the time. My Mum was very shook up as she'd witnessed first hand the behaviour others had described on the news.

 

Soup kitchens at Jump primary school
Arguments at home
Depression
Digging out coal on Elsecar stack
Crap clothes/no holidays
Getting burgled
My dad almost taking his life



Happy days.

 

My Dad was a Fireman at Brampton Fire Station.

Every shift, he would always go to work with his uniform on. Then, as the strike kicked in and Cortonwood became the "hot bed of hostility", he had to go to work in his civilian clothes and change at work. Reason you may ask? Because some striking miners would think he was police and brick the car.

Sad......but very true.

 

my Dad getting stopped near Nottingham by the Police

he had been a miner, but had left around 1968. He had nearly been killed in a cave in. He was working for an American firm who were in the Agricultural and Forestry line. The Police would not believe him and turned him back, they said he was a "Flying Picket". He was dressed in a tailored 3 piece business suit had company ID, Various samples and catalogues of the companies products the lot. But he had a strongish 'Tarn' accent...that seemingly was the clincher for the Boys in Blue.

 

I can't actually remember anything specifically associated with BFC at the time, however I do remember us laikin football and cricket matches all over raising bits and pieces for the strike fund; en those of us who didn't work at the pit helping out as much as we could afford.

 

Year on strike and I was hoping that we wouldn't go back even after a year. When the strike was over the miners marched back to their pit - I didn't march because we went back defeated and I knew then that things were going to change drastically.
Police in the strike were like an occupying army - I know now how the Catholics feel in Northern Ireland.
Single bloke so I didn't have one penny to my name and nothing to eat in the house so I had to walk to the girlfriends house or mi mothers for something to eat. At the same time hundreds of police were sat in their vans or out playing football on overtime after overtime.
Only picketed at my local pit a few times - reason being, if everyone did what I was doing then we wouldn't have the television news and newspapers bashing us every day and eventually we would win the strike.

Horrible time - but without it I would still be at the pit now. So all in all in the long run it became a benefit to me.

 

The Snowman - hilarious it was - although to be clear my memory is of my Dads mate telling the story over a rare pint.




It was in nineteen-eighty-five, all in the wintertime,
The miners were out striking, their jobs were on the line,
And those out on the picket line at the Alamo,
Built themselves a mascot and they made him out of snow.

Chorus:
I'll sing you about the snowman,
His part in the struggle long ago,
I'll sing you about the snowman,
The hero of the Alamo.

2
There was a Police Super, a mean and moody cop,
The type for cutting corners if it got him to the top,
He sat in his Range-Rover with the heater turned full on,
And watched the pickets freezing, it was his idea of fun.

3
When the Super saw the snowman, his face it turned bright red,
For the snowman had a bobby's helmet on its head,
And the pickets saw him watching and shouted with a smile,
‘Here's the finest bloody bobby that you'll meet in many a mile.’

4
The Super ordered, ‘Shift it!’, in voice all harsh and rude,
The pickets told him, ‘Stuff it!’ with a gesture rather lewd,
So he revved up the Range-Rover and he stuck it into gear,
And drove it at the snowman and the pickets standing near.

5
But the Range-Rover it stopped with a god-almighty crash!
The bumper and the bonnet buckled right back to the dash,
For the heart of the snowman, so pure and white and sweet,
Was a very solid gatepost made of reinforced concrete.

6
Well, that fixed the Super, he was a broken man,
He became a laughing stock, his hopes went down the pan,
And though you shouldn’t laugh at other people’s grief,
It warmed the pickets’ hearts and brought them some relief.

7
Well, the miners lost the battle, though the tales will long be told,
Of how they fought the government, the hunger and the cold,
And sometimes one'll laugh and say, ‘But, lad, it weren’t half grand,
When the Super met the snowman at the miners' last stand!’

 

did that actually happen?

Quality if so

 

M1 Tyke just beat me to it - the snowman - and we aren't talking about the Aled Jones version!

Strangely enough I've just walked back with the current Mrs Wilko Johnson from cortonwood and walked back up pit lane where I showed her where the Alamo was - I went on to tell her the Snowman v Inspector Nesbitt incident - she thought it hilarious.......

That aside being on strike for 12 months was no joke...........quite depressing at times, especially after the novelty of it wore off

 

My Dad kept rabbits 'fo' t'pot' and we'd have hutches up the back garden. During the strike he was letting them shag more, making more young uns. He was extremely adept at killing and skinning em, my Dad. Then he'd chop em up, put it in a bag and tell me an address to take it to. Not far, it would a nearby miner's family. He'd tell me not to let them refuse it, some were too proud.

I can also remember lads coming back from picket line battered and bruised, being carried into their houses some of them. It was also weird for someone my age watching it on telly and your area being the centre of the news. Particularly after following so close behind the Falklands, which had been the other side of the world.

 

Re: my Dad getting stopped near Nottingham by the Police

I was turned back at junction 26 going into Nottingham, the police didn't believe I was going to work even though I had drums of cable, light fittings etc in the back of the van and were only interested in the Coal Not Dole sticker I had on my toolbox

 

I remember my parents paying my brothers mortgage over the whole period of the strike and they never had much money as there was 5 of us to look after but we all made sacrifices as a family to get through and help him out. It was a very hard time for all of us but we came through it. My brother has worked at various colleries since and now works at Kellingley, however he has never forgotten the strike and whilst it was tough, he has some great stories of the things that went on during that period and also plenty of tales of the battles with the police.

 

By the time of the strike

Barnsley FC had been in decline for some time. After watching what, in my opinion, was the best Barnsley team I've ever seen in 1981/82, it had become obvious what was beginning to happen at the club. We had gradually sold on, or let go, nearly all of that team with the exception of Joyce & Glavin. Hunter had brought in one or two decent signings (Gray, May, Geddis), but mostly signed inferior players. This resulted in the team dropping down the table and brought about his sacking. Initially, Bobby Collins was promoted from coach to temporary manager until the end of the 1983/84 season. He stabilised the team, bringing in two players in particular who were to become huge favourites, Gwyn Thomas & Paul Futcher.
The attendances had started to drop off significantly, prior to the strike, but they fell off dramatically once it'd started.
That Summer, Barnsley went after Higham-born Keith Burkinshaw (who has just left the manager's job at 1983/84 UEFA Cup Winners Spurs) and the newly retired Manchester United star Lou Macari. Both turned it down. So the club appointed Bobby Collins full time. The first thing he did was to give the out of contract Ronnie Glavin a free transfer, as the club claimed they couldn't match the salary he'd been on. He signed Gordon Owen from Cardiff City & Ian Walsh from Swansea City. Walsh would go through the entire season without scoring a single goal. After losing the first three games of the 1984/85 season, the team went on an unbeaten run until the Sunday before Christmas. Unfortunately, the strike had been going on for months at this point and the gates were down to around the 4 000 mark. There was no atmosphere in the ground, which wasn't helped by the ultra defensive style of football being played. Possibly because of this the club decided to sell top scorer David Geddis (apparently against his wishes) to Birmingham City for £80 000, replacing him with Rodger Wylde & Ron Futcher for a combined fee of £20 000.
The club were approach on a number of occasions to see if a bucket collection could be held at the ground for the miners, along with the possibility of free admission to games via production of their N.U.M. membership card, or even a token fee of a few pence. The club turned these down, claiming it didn't want to become embroiled in what it called a political situation. That approach would cost the club dearly for years, as once the miners had returned to work, they had got out of the habit of going down to the games and it would be a long time before the attendances increased significantly, other than for the odd game.

 

I worked at cortonwood.

I was on days on the 2nd of march when the closure was announced,completely out of the blue we were gobsmacked.I went home and told me dad,he was in bed because he'd been on nights.
I went out that night and met my future wife in the reform club at wombwell.
on sunday the 4th we had a meeting in Brampton and voted to strike and seek the support of our collegues at an area level.
Monday 5th,we went to the num headquarters on wakefield road and when we arrived there were a couple of hundred men from bulcliffe wood pit who had also been told they were to close.
we got assurances from the union that we wouldn't be left to fight it on our own and within a day or two all Yorkshire was out on strike.
we then went further afield to get support,notts,leicster,derbys,lancs were all asked to support us,you all know what happened after that,
I was on strike for just short of 53 weeks,we went back to work at cortonwood,the plan was to start coaling again and restart the developments,but by November we were placed into the modified review procedure and the pit shut,we were offered transfers to four pits,barnburgh,silverwood,treeton and maltby and were told if we didn't accept the closure Yorkshire main would be closing and they'd take the jobs we were been offered.
I transferred to barnburgh and that was the end of cortonwood.
as for bfc,we didn't go during the strike because we didn't have any money.not a fcukin cracker
12 months of picketing,coal picking and sawing down trees,but by the summer,as single lads we were having a reyt time,picketing then going out with the lurchers,hare coursing and rabbiting ,walking miles,it was red hot.
I'd do it all again if I thought it would have saved the industry,which,if notts and derbys had supported us it would have done.
i'll never forgive thatcher and her crew,many areas still havnt recovered and Barnsley is probably one of the worst affected.

by the way,i divorced that cow in 2002

 

so you're saying basically the strike was BFC's fault, and most likely

Simon Davey... is that what tha saying

 

I was 11 when the strike began, me dad wasn't a miner, although he did work in the coal business, but our family wasn't hit too hard, so I'll leave that to those who know a hell of a lot more about it then me.

The thing that stands out above anything else for the 1984-85 season was how few people were in Oakwell. Since Alan Clarke joined in 78 we'd always averaged attendances in the double thousands, peaking at above 15,000 for the 81-82 season. 3 seasons later and we were getting less than half that. The drop had begun at the end of the season before, when the miners strike begun, which brought the average attendance for that season down to 9,700. For the 84-85 season we were at to just over 7,000.

It wasn't because we were so poor. We weren't at the same level as we had been a couple of seasons before, but we were miles better than we are now. Bobby Collins was the manager, and he may not have been the best, but he was far from the worst. He was sacked at the end of the season, not because he'd done a terrible job, but because we wanted to bring back Alan Clarke. The real shame is that we lost probably the best youth team coach we'd had when Bobby left the club.

We lost the first three games of the season and things looked grim, but then we went on a undefeated run in the league of 15 matches, winning 9 of them, during the autumn. Between 4th September and 8th of February we played 25 games and lost just 2, one in the league cup and one in the league. We were up to 4th in the table by early December, just a couple of points off the top spot. A number of postponements and a run in the FA Cup meant we'd slipped to 7th by early February, but we could get up in to the promotion places should we win our games in hand. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be, we started losing as many as we won and in the final 8 matches we lost our form completely and didn't win a single game. We ended the season in 11th.

Highlight of the season was the 2-1 victory at 1st division Southampton in the 5th round of the FA Cup and the free kick that a young Steve Agnew put past Peter Shilton. The biggest game was the home tie to Liverpool, but we didn't turn up and lost 4-0. The weirdest being the 5-3 loss at Charlton. Ron Futcher scored a hattrick putting us 3-0 up before getting sent off and kicking the door off the changing rooms.

We had 3 proper players: Paul Futcher, Stuart Gray and David Geddis. I can't remember how many games Gray played that season as he was injury prone, but I do remember we sold Geddis in December. He didn't want to go and the story I've heard was that the directors told him he would never play for us again if he stayed, forcing his hand. We did need money due to the low crowds, due to the strike, but the £80,000 we got for him was criminal. He was brilliant and isn't spoken about nearly enough for my liking. He signed for Birmingham who were promoted at the end of the season, in no small part due to Daivid Geddis. It may well have been us had we kept him, he was that influential, and our poor performance in the second half of the season was, I believe, down to his sale.

 

Re: so you're saying basically the strike was BFC's fault, and most likely

Yes, yes that's exactly what I'm saying.

 

thats cos tha not a reyt fan, I keep telling thi

let the MESTERS do all the thinking...REYT