Parkside Memories, 1959 to 1989
The Miners Strike of 1984-5
The picket hut at the bottom of the colliery road.
The miner's strike started in March at the beginning of the month. Cronton colliery closed down about the same time. We only started to feel the effects of the strike after the NEC had allowed each area to have secret ballots, Western area balloted to stay at work, as did several other areas, but Arthur Scargill, the NUM president, decided that the areas that had voted against action were to be picketed out just the same, thus destroying the democratic process for which the mining industry had been famous for over many years.
The argument by the militants was that no man had the right to take away another man's job by putting a cross on a piece of paper. This of course was a twisted way of reasoning, as the ballot box is there to enable men to vote according to conscience. No one wants to see pit closures and job losses, but the way to go about it isn't always by industrial action, thus depriving men of the wages needed to maintain decent standards of living. The flash point came with the closure of one of the little worked out pits in Yorkshire, Cortonwood Colliery. Scargill called out his troops, and they responded. Soon, all Yorkshire was out, along with most of Derbyshire, Scotland and Wales. Lancashire and Nottingham were working.
Parkside was working normally until March 14th, when we were met at the start of the dayshift by a group of Yorkshire men from Kellingley and Prince of Wales collieries, who mounted a picket at the gate. Large numbers of Parkside men joined them and thus the strike at Parkside began. That morning, we went in the back way to avoid any aggro, but it was the last time that we did.
After this stoppage which only lasted for the one day, it was decided to have a ballot of the area which, when taken, came out in a resounding "no" to strike action. With this result picketing became more intense so the pit was shut for a week for "safety reasons" by the NUM, who decided to hold a ballot at the pit to see if they wanted to work, and this vote came through as a "yes" to work, by a narrow majority, but because Bold and Sutton Manor had decided to go on strike, some of the Parkside men went down the road and picketed their own pit in defiance of the vote taken, so much for democracy!. There were one or two nasty incidents. Two of the Parkside men, Dave Panter and Jack Clements were set upon in Newton and knocked about. Some men, one of whom was Chris Speed, had their car panels kicked in.
All along during this time, supplies kept coming in and although the drivers got some aggro at the gates, we managed to keep things moving. We didn't send any coal, but the few men that were working maintained all the faces. Kenny Pennington, one of the onsetters got himself arrested for obstruction. He, along with Ged Ashall and Stefan Miszczuk, was one of the "leading lights" of the strike and they all were enjoying their brief moment of glory with the TV cameras trained on them each day.
During this time NACODS voted to carry on working and COSA, to whom I belonged, didn't have a vote, so we carried on as well. The rest of the country was divided on who should work and who shouldn't; Notts and Leics were working normally, despite heavy picketing and insults, not to mention physical violence. All this aggression could have been avoided by a national ballot, but Scargill wanted none of this, because I think that he realized that he would not have had 100% support.
He asked the famous "Tripartite Alliance" to back the strike. The NUR and ASLEF were for backing him, but the steelmen were wary, because after their strike in the early 80's, they had to accept a lot of redundancies. The coal trains in various parts of the country were halted, but coal continued to get through, especially in Notts. In a determined effort to get everyone out, the NEC issued instructions to all areas not to cross picket lines, but those who were still working largely ignored it.
There was another meeting at Parkside when the militants got control and voted to stay out. Of course, the men working still defied the efforts of the militants to get them out, because as they rightly said, a ballot had been held in the area and this had voted to carry on working. All these pit head ballots that had been held had no real meaning, all they were doing was to try and overturn a majority decision so that Scargill could have his own way and lead his troops to a disaster, mainly for political motives, because he had openly said at rallies up and down the country that he wanted to bring down the government, and get a left wing style government in its place.
During the last couple of weeks leading to the May holidays, we were subjected to all kinds of pressure to join the strikers, even COSA and NACODS were being approached to join their ranks. Democracy seemed to have gone out of the window at that time. During May, things took a more sinister turn, as a crowd of 3000 pickets besieged the coking plant that supplied the steel mills at Scunthorpe, throwing stones and other missiles. The Police horses charged them down at one stage. Scargill managed to get himself arrested at Orgreave and was charging the Police with brutality over his arrest. The Police said, "He fell over!"
There was a big rally in London on June 7th, and Scargill said that he was prepared to stay out until well into the winter of 1985. Dennis Skinner, the MP for Bolsover was saying in Parliament that the miners would be putting in for a pay rise to cover all the money that they had lost in the strike. The rail unions pledged their support (again) Skinner said, "The miners, united will never be defeated" It became a sort of rallying, cry. The NUM went to court in June to get authority to discipline members who wouldn't join the strike, but it was thrown out of court. A few more men started to trickle back to work, There was more aggravation, a coach was burned out at Atherton, and the coaches bringing men to work were regularly stoned as they went along the roads.
In August there was an escalation when over 1000 pickets from Yorkshire and Durham came to Parkside, Frank Lyon and Tom Bryant got nails in their tyres, and John Watkins got his car kicked and rocked about. Ken Leach started at Parkside about this time, having been transferred from Haig colliery in Cumberland. There was an incident in Notts where 5 coaches were burned out. In that area was a man known as "Silver Birch" due to the fact that he had silver hair and he was trying to persuade men to get back to work.
The management at Parkside were responsible for a lot of the aggro themselves, because the NUM office was by the side of the pay office, and the strikers were allowed on to the site to go to the office. It was a farcical situation really when you think about it, here you had men who were planning the next stage of industrial mayhem, sat in conference on Coal Board property. The main areas of confrontation were the baths and the pay hall as strikers came to watch workers drawing their pay and then the catcalls and barracking would start. We had cameras installed on the top of No1 tower with the controls in the Elsie room, and these cameras covered all the carparks and most of the buildings. These cameras could zoom in to more or less anywhere on the site, and the control room operator had to keep his wits about him. There were some attempts made to sabotage, especially in the coal prep plant, where belts were cut.
Scargill tried to involve the coal terminals at Immingham and Hull, but they didn't want to get involved, so that was another nail in his coffin. In September came the TUC conference, when they decided to back the miners, but Scargill didn't want any interference in his running of the dispute. The ETU and the steel men's union had told him "No deal" There were a lot of men sent down to the conference at Brighton, to lobby the TUC there, and at least this gave a bit of a respite from the aggravation at the gates.
About this time, Richard Goldstone started work as assistant manager, when Ken Horne and Alan Sinar had taken redundancy. Ged Ashall was interviewed on TV, apparently Leon Britten who was Home Secretary, had said that the "boot boys" should be jailed and of course the media wanted some grass roots reaction. Well Ged was a typical bully boy, so they couldn't have picked a better man.
In September, John Connaughton worked his last shift, prior to retirement, John Sheridan started as undermanager in his place, and NACODS were starting to "rattle their sabres", I thought at one time that I was going underground on a face again, as an official. The Bishop of Durham was pontificating about the strike, but was told to get his facts right before opening his mouth. In October the strikers had their concessionary coal stopped and the NUM had their assets seized in court.
There was a Labour "Day of Action" in Wigan about that time, and I went down to watch the turnout. Huckfield the MP was with them, they looked a pathetic lot!! A group of miner's wives were with them chanting "We will win". It was Huckfield who was on the gate one morning when we arrived for work. The Police asked us to stop, so that the strikers could speak to us, and Huckfield said, "You're not going in there are you? There's only scabs and blacklegs in there" We gave him a short answer and went on our way!!
We got our new computer terminal unit installed in the stores and Ted Smith and John Rogers went down to Kirkless stores to see how it was operated. Before this, all goods had to be ordered on pink sheets (167s) and the only way we had of checking on other stores for material was either by using the micro fiche or by phoning around . This innovation meant that you could look up anything that you required on the screen, and everything that was carried at any store or colliery could be displayed. This in itself saved a lot of valuable time on telephone calls alone. I remember the drill quite well even now to open up the file you had to type in "\forpsenq" (purchasing and stores enquiries). Many were the times that I was called out from home to order a specific item, and highly profitable it was too. Half a shift for each call-out, definitely worth coming out for!! Sammy Duff, the engineer in charge on the afternoon shift, called me out regularly and I was always glad of the extra cash.
The deputies met with the NCB and accepted the offer made to them, so any chance of a strike from them was averted. There were thousands of tons of coal being imported from abroad, and there was no way that the NUM could stop it coming in. Things in Yorkshire and Notts were a lot worse than anything that we experienced, and men who were working had their houses burnt and wrecked.
The only area in all the coalfields that was completely solid in their support for Scargill was South Wales, and here everyone was out, there wasn't even a picket on the pit gates. Everywhere else the strike was crumbling away as more and more men came back to work. The strike leaders Arthur Scargill and his lieutenant Mick McGahey, were speaking at rallies and haranguing the men to stand firm, in fact, the NUM conference was held about this time and the message that came out of it was "No ballot, because we are winning!"
What Scargill, in his blinkered vision couldn't see, was that Maggie Thatcher had out gunned him on all sides, after the rise that she allowed them to have in 1983, of about 9%, she made sure that she was in a position of strength, with plenty of coal stocks, so that she could starve them out and back to work. It was said of Scargill, by his predecessor, Joe Gormley, that as a negotiator he was rubbish, he wouldn't concede an inch in his demands.
At Parkside in November, 700 men were working normally, 250 off sick and 300 stood in the rain at the bottom of the road, jeering at those who crossed the line. Scargill sent a message to all those who had gone back to work that if they would come back out on strike, they would be forgiven for going back to work!!! Two of the Parkside men had their windows broken, Alan Stott, the linesman and Stan Anderton, the electrician, but they lived on the estate where a lot of the Sutton Manor and Bold men lived. Joe Gorringe came back to work and as he crossed the picket line, he held up his gas bill and said "if you will pay this for me then I will stay out"
By the 20th of November, the N.Wales coalfield called the strike off, and the NUM had writs served on them sequestrating their union funds, which had conveniently turned up in Luxemburg.
There was a very nasty incident in S.Wales where a taxi driver was killed when a concrete block was thrown from a bridge, through the windscreen of his car, as he drove two men to work. The ones responsible were jailed for manslaughter. About December, Andy Birchall, Jack's lad, wrote a pathetic letter to the Observer when he described his feelings as he went back to work. He said that he felt sick to his stomach for letting down his mates, and he went back to the picket line and rejoined them!!! I reckon that Andy was a lazy little so and so, who didn't like work.
During December, the NUM president in Lancashire, Sid Vincent, went off to Tenerife for a fortnight's holiday and the newspapers had a field day with him! Just imagine, a strike on your hands and swanning off on holiday, they crucified him. The TUC had prophesied power cuts in the New Year, but the then energy minister, Peter Walker appeared on TV to refute the idea.
The Notts miners decide to break away from the NUM and form another union, they called themselves the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) and in January, Scargill appeared on TV saying, "I'd sooner go down fighting than desert my men!" He wanted all the men who had been dismissed for misconduct during the strike to be reinstated, but Mrs Thatcher told him straight and to the point that it wasn't on.
On the 5th of March, there was the big "March Back to Work" by the NUM. The ones who were still out at Parkside, gathered behind a band and a banner in Newton at the Legh Arms and marched up the road, they looked pathetic!!! and so ended the Great Miners Strike of the Century, winning nothing and losing everything, because the layoffs and redundancies then started in earnest. The lads on the yard had mostly been working for the past few months, with one or two exceptions such as Paul who was working on the brow prior to the strike, but was now transferred to the scrap job up the "razzer" (reservoir) road. We also got KP (Ken Pennington) back as onsetter underground, after his brief "Moment of Glory" as a militant picket. There was just one thing worth mentioning, a 50p levy was voted on to assist the miners who were sacked for misconduct during the strike, but this was heavily defeated, only 25% supported it, after all, the ones who were sacked had either been damaging Coal Board property or had been intimidating men and had been convicted of it. When KP and his cronies started back, they carried on as they had left off, by coming up at snap time to the canteen, but there was some aggravation over something or other to do with the strike and Ron Silver, the Personnel Manager banned them from coming up, so they found out the hard way that things had changed.
On the whole, things were soon back to normal with everyone underground screaming for supplies again. We had by this time, started to package some of the material going underground, using steel strapping and a machine to put it on with, it was mostly stuff like arches which were being used in the drivages to the new faces. We made a bundle containing 4 arches and all the ancillary material. The lads on the yard approached Ken Leech with a view to getting paid piecework for making up the bundles. He sorted a price out and everyone was happy.
FSV of the same type sent underground at Parkside.
Two diesel powered Free Steered Vehicles (FSVs) were sent underground in pieces to be built up and used in the face drivages to take supplies in, thus doing away with the need for haulage roads.
An early attempt at packaging.
We packaged enough material in each bundle to make 4 metres advance, mesh, plates, roofbolts, and resin some of the new face drivages were supported by only mesh and roofbolts. This was a new innovation and was used where retreat mining was carried out.
This is a drawing of a continuous miner.
The coal was removed by a "Continuous Miner" which was a tracked machine having a ripping bar with around 8 cutting chains that could remove the seam section. A Wombat drilling machine drilled the holes for the resin and bolts, and the mesh was secured to the roof by 6" square steel plates. The resin, which was fast set and slow set was placed in the hole and held in place with a plastic insert, known as a "hair curler". The bolt was placed in the hole and the drilling machine used to spin the resin and mix it with the hardener. In each hole was one fast set capsule, which went in first, and then two slow set behind it. As the resin set, the machine would stall and the men then knew that the resin had gone off. The same machine was used to spin the nut up on the bolt to secure the mesh and plate.
The FSVs had a forklift at the front and in the shunt at the beginning of the drivage was a monorail and air hoist, which could lift the material from the tram and load it onto the FSV.
On the yard, we got a "Rough Terrain" forklift truck and it was a great advantage over the ones that we previously used. The biggest problem with the previous ones was that they were really built for work in factory conditions and this didn't apply at Parkside, due to the fact that the trucks were needed all over the colliery site. The rough terrain truck fitted the bill perfectly, although when they first arrived, the drivers weren't too impressed, but after they had driven them for a while, they didn't want to go back to the former ones.
Frank Lyon who was in charge on the afternoon shift took early retirement about this time, and Peter Fahey was made up to chargehand. Gordon Robinson, who had been a banksman when I was at Parkside in the 60s, was the surface foreman, and he and I didn't get along at all.
During the strike, Gordon had been off work for most of the time with ill health. He had been in hospital and had a stomach operation, which left him rather debilitated. He started back and the old acrimony started again between us. Frank Reid, the Manager, who wanted his supplies getting into the pit as soon as possible each day, soon put this a stop to it, Gordon was told that he had to work with me and not against me. We had meetings about the shaft and any problems were ironed out there.
Anyway, it came time for Gordon to depart, and Peter Fahey stepped into his job and was made up to Industrial Staff status. This made my job a lot easier and there was a lot more harmony on the yard. There was a lot of redundancies from 1985 onwards, as men were given the opportunity to leave with generous packages of redundancy pay. Quite a lot of my former mates underground started to leave on these terms. I had my own ideas about leaving as and when it was convenient for me.
We had big savings ideas about materials and Ken Leech would bring men in on a Saturday to reclaim stuff that had been sent back up the pit. At one time, the stuff was just slung into the scrap bin, but by working on a Saturday, the lads paid their wages and showed a profit for the pit. We had this cabin up the "razzer road" and it had been constructed from pieces of scrap, salvaged from underground. At first, a fitter by the name of Bob Rose was in charge, and he and his mate Kenny, had built this cabin. It had a fireplace and seats to sit on. A table was knocked up from timber taken from the stockyard and the lads up there used the cabin for their breaks. Tommy McCormick was one of them. Tommy was a harmless soul, but a "few bricks short of a load" as you might say.
Tommy liked to do the crossword in the Mirror each day, and sometimes I would go up and he would be stuck. "Let's have a look Tommy" " that's not how you spell it!" Then I would put him right!
Alan Sinar went up to the cabin one day and said, " If this cabin had been built in Cornwall, near the seaside, it would have been worth £30.000 as a holiday chalet!"
About this time, Ronnie Wilkins, who had been in charge of powered supports took his redundancy and was replaced by a lad named Geoff Green, who had come to us from Bold colliery, which was being run down prior to closure. Geoff made a big impact on the job and was still there when I finally left. Geoff reorganized all the powered supports system. Until he came, all the reclaimed supports had been sent off to one of the Coal Board workshops in the Midlands or Yorkshire, such as Fence or Swadlincote, but Geoff was allowed to build a place on site to deal with them, and from then on, all the powered supports were re-furbished at the pit.
There were one or two incidences that should be recorded, one of which was the rider rope incident in Wigan Mines Access, and it was here that Sammy McGrail the rope man lost his leg in a bizarre accident. Sammy was changing the rope in this tunnel and he was stood with his leg in a loop of the new rope being installed. Obviously, he hadn't realized the danger that he was in, and the rope pulled away suddenly, trapping Sammy's leg in the loop. His leg was so badly damaged that it had to be amputated and he never worked again.
Another time was when the 3/47 brow rider rope broke. Luckily no one was on the rider at the time, but it was a major incident and we in the stores had to rush new rope to the pit to get things moving as soon as possible.
Joe Gorringe had been working on the surface for quite a while and it was rumoured that he stood a good chance of getting Gordon Robinson's job when Gordon retired, but as it was, Peter Fahey got it. Joe was a bit put out at this and he decided to go back underground again. He hadn't done a full week when he broke his leg badly. / A compound fracture of the tibia and fibula. After he had recovered, he came to work in the stores for some months before accepting his redundancy terms. His leg never healed properly and he was left with a badly bent leg as a result.
Frank Green, who was a belt man with Bob Scrivens, had accepted his redundancy terms and was a week away from finishing work when he broke his leg in the same manner as Joe Gorringe. He was a long time convalescing and his leg didn't mend very good as well, leaving him with walking problems.
Soon after the strike, there was a big economy drive and any job that could be done at colliery level was done or farmed out to whoever could do it the cheapest. We had meetings every Friday when Trevor Jackson the cost clerk would go through the books to see where any savings could be made. Every department had its own budget and no one could overstep it unless the manager said so.
I've seen Trevor perform some conjuring tricks with money, robbing one job to pay for another. We in the stores could only order materials in on the express say so of the general manager, Frank Reid, and when heads of various departments came to see us we had to take their requests to the "top shunt" as Frank Reid's office was known.
Of course this led to bickering and the various departments would be on to me for materials, each vying with the other for priority. They all got the same reply "If he says that you can have it then I will get it for you".
I recall being in meetings and Frank Reid would ask Trevor if a certain piece of machinery had come to the surface or not.
Let me explain. When a face was stopped for a replacement motor, all stops were pulled to get the motor into the district. All the haulage roads were cleared of impediments and the said motor rushed in. However, when the exchange had been made and the face kicked up again, the faulty motor would be left on the side of the roadway.
As the replacement cost to the colliery was in the region of £100,000 per motor, the part exchange value was quite an item. All replacement motors, drive heads, etc. came from a central pool, and this high price was put on the costs to the colliery so that the dud equipment could be retrieved, for repair.
When Trevor replied that it hadn't surfaced, Frank would get on to Sid Hichisson in the control room. "Sid, get the mid-section undermanager to ring me straight away" As soon as the said official rang his office, he would be told in no uncertain manner to get the dud motor out of the pit, pronto!!
In the old days before the crackdown on finance, motors, and even tunneling machines have been left to rust away at the side of the roadway, as no one could be bothered getting them out.
When a face had to change the scraper chain, there was always the problem of what to do with the old chain. In the past, burying it had solved this. In fact, when I was a deputy on L19, we made a small heading in the lower side of the main gate in which to dump it. About 25tonnes of high-grade steel just left there to rust away. However, this all changed, and we had a firm who offered us about £40/tonne for it. All chain in future had to be salvaged and sent up the pit.
Again this policy was brought in too late. It was criminal the amount of waste that had occurred before it was implemented.
Continued...