1984: What Life Was Really Like in a Yorkshire Pit Village When the Miners' Strike Began

Cortonwood Colliery, March 1984: what was daily life really like in a Yorkshire pit village when the miners' strike began, and how did families get through the year that followed? On 1 March 1984, the National Coal Board announced that Cortonwood Colliery, near Brampton Bierlow, would close with about five weeks' notice. The following Monday, the miners walked out. This video explains what a colliery meant in a South Yorkshire village: houses first built by colliery companies, concessionary coal, the union branch and the welfare hall. You will see how families coped with no strike pay and with benefit deductions of about fifteen pounds a week. Welfare halls became communal kitchens, and Women Against Pit Closures organized food parcels, kitchens and rallies. We follow the pickets to Nottinghamshire, the deaths of David Jones and Joe Green, and the confrontation at the Orgreave coking plant on 18 June 1984. We also cover the vote of 98 to 91 to return to work, the march back behind union banners on 5 March 1985, the closure of Cortonwood in October 1985, and the unanswered questions about cabinet papers and Orgreave that remain today. If you enjoy history told from the ground up, subscribe so you do not miss the next story about ordinary lives in the United Kingdom and Ireland. #MinersStrike #Cortonwood #YorkshireHistory #1984MinersStrike #SouthYorkshire #Orgreave #PitVillage #BritishHistory #WomenAgainstPitClosures #CoalMining #VideoEssay #NUM