Battle of Orgreave
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Orgreave is the name given to a confrontation between police
and picketing miners at a British Steel
coking
plant in Orgreave
, South Yorkshire
, in 1984, during the UK miners' strike. In 1991, South Yorkshire police were forced to pay out half a million pounds to 39 miners who were arrested in the events at the Battle of Orgreave.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) organised a mass picket of Orgreave for 18 June 1984, with the intention of blockading the plant, and ideally forcing its temporary closure. Aware of the plans by means of MI5
infiltration, the police organised counter-measures.
The NUM was represented by 5,000 to 6,000 pickets from across the UK
. The police deployed between 4,000 and 8,000 officers, and were deployed from 10 counties
. Of these, a small number had been trained in new riot tactics following the Toxteth
and Brixton
riots, while most had little or no experience in dealing with such events. There were between 40 and 50 mounted police and 58 police dogs. There were no women officers and only a handful of female picketers.
Unlike most of the strikes of the time, where picketers were kept well away from their intended positions, the strikers were escorted to a field to the north of the Orgreave plant. The field was flanked by police on all sides except the south, where the Sheffield to Worksop
railway line runs. Opinion is divided as to whether this was a deliberate arrangement.
If coal could be prevented from reaching there, the low stocks at British Steel
plants such as Ravenscraig
would be exhausted and the furnaces prevented from "ticking over", causing significant economic damage to the industry.
At much the same time, the lorries
arrived to fetch the coke. This was the cue for the "push," in which the miners jostled the police in an attempt to break the lines. Shortly afterwards, Clement ordered the mounted police forwards. This tactic successfully delivered a retreat by the striking miners, and the horses stopped about 30 yard
s ahead of the police line before withdrawing. This allowed a space for the lorries to pass on their business, and escalated the tension on the field.
A second push was followed by a second mounted response, but this time the whole police line advanced the 30 yards. Increased stone throwing heightened the tension and the miners were warned that if they did not retreat 100 yards, short shield squads would be deployed.(various videos are available which show very little if any stone throwing, a police senior police officer said on the day that the sky turned black due to objects been thrown)
Short shield squads (police in riot gear, with batons and short shields) were a new development and would represent an offensive rather than defensive approach to riot control. This would be new to the UK if employed.
When the miners did not move back, a third mounted advance was initiated, with the short shield squads in pursuit. The result of this third advance was general panic amongst the strikers, and an increasing amount of hand to hand fighting between the two sides.
Having repelled the picket line, the police withdrew again to their original positions. The miners moved forwards again, this time with more stone-throwing.
At 9:25, the fully laden lorries began to leave the plant. This was the cue for another push by the strikers. This push was less friendly than the previous one, and again, the miners were pushed back.
Following a show of defiance by NUM leader Arthur Scargill
, who walked in front of the police lines for a few moments, there was a lull in the proceedings, and most of the picketers headed to Orgreave village for refreshments. Those that were left sunbathed. The police on the other hand were hot in their uniforms, and a breakdown in logistics had left many without a drink for several hours. However, many police (including the long shields) were stood down during the lull.
What happened next is the subject of some debate. The police claim that a lorry tyre was rolled to within 20 yards of their line, and that stones started to be thrown again. Another account blamed an argument between miners and police. Given that the confrontation was not dying down, the police chose to make further charges.
This advance was more substantial than before, and left the now outnumbered pickets with no option but to cross the railway line. While most made it to the bridge, others had to scramble down the embankment and across the rails.
Some miners tried to fight police officers but were arrested, and fighting escalated to the point where miners were being beaten with truncheon
s. The police soon reached the bridge, taking and holding the field side. Here they were bombarded by missiles, with the miners utilising a nearby scrap-yard. A car was dragged from the yard, put across the road and set alight.
The option now for the police was either to withdraw into the field and risk another push by the miners, or to advance into the village and chase off the hostile strikers. After three short-range charges (during which Arthur Scargill was one of the injured), an advance was ordered. The miners were forced into the village with a new police line forming.
But stone-throwing continued, and so about 20 mounted police were ordered to advance. This finally resulted in the dispersal of the crowds, although several police officers ran in pursuit and reportedly attacked some of the fleeing miners.
More stoning resulted in a further charge down Rotherham Lane, during which a photographer who was helping an injured miner narrowly missed a baton strike, with the incident being one of many caught on camera. Lesley Boulton was the subject of this iconic photograph, taken by John Harris, which showed her before a mounted police officer in the act of attempting to strike her with his baton. Her arm is raised, and she has a surprised expression on her face.
A member of Women Against Pit Closures
, Lesley Boulton, claimed that striking miners were "sitting or standing around in small groups", adding, "there was really not a lot going on. A lot of the men had taken their t-shirts off and stuffed them in their back pockets.
It certainly wasn't the sort of thing you'd do if you were planning to attack a seriously armed police force - they had their long shields, all their protective gear on, batons, helmets on. You don't confront police like that in nothing but a pair of jeans and trainers.
So I say quite categorically that there was no intention of the miners to attack the police. I myself, with a lot of other miners, was forced to run away and take refuge."
A subsequent photograph, taken as Boulton was pulled out of range shows how close the baton came to her.
Only one newspaper of 17 published the photograph in its coverage of the day's events, leading to allegations of bias against the miners by Arthur Scargill.
Finally, the police withdrew back to the bridge, and despite continued stoning they held their line. The remaining miners built barricades from scrap, but by mid-afternoon the stone-throwing had stopped.
Ninety-five picketers were charged with riot, unlawful assembly and similar offences after the battle. A number of these were put on trial in 1987, but the trials collapsed, all charges were dropped and a number of lawsuits were brought against the police for unlawful arrest. South Yorkshire Police later agreed to pay £425,000 compensation and £100,000 in legal costs to 39 pickets in an out of court settlement.
ist Jeremy Deller
organised a reenactment of the event commissioned by British arts organisation Artangel
and assisted by reenactment logistics company EventPlan. The event took place on June 17, 2001, and was filmed by film director
Mike Figgis
for a Channel 4
documentary
. The reenactment featured 800 people including 280 local residents, a number of people (police and picketers) from the original encounter and re-enactors from various groups such as The Vikings, War of the Roses and The Sealed Knot, but with authentic 1980s clothing and techniques. Only the railway crossing was omitted from the reenactment, on safety grounds.
The Dire Straits
song "Iron Hand" from the 1991 Album On Every Street
tells the story of this infamous day.
In the video for Dizzee Rascal's song 'Sirens', Dizzee is chased by huntsmen through the fictional 'Orgreave Estate'.
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
and picketing miners at a British Steel
British Steel
British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation , formed in 1967. This was converted to a public limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
coking
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
plant in Orgreave
Orgreave, South Yorkshire
Orgreave is a village and civil parish in South Yorkshire, England.At the time of the 2001 census, the parish had a population of 761.Orgreave forms part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham; until 1974, it was part of the Rotherham Rural District, the town of Rotherham being to the...
, South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of 1.29 million. It consists of four metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, and City of Sheffield...
, in 1984, during the UK miners' strike. In 1991, South Yorkshire police were forced to pay out half a million pounds to 39 miners who were arrested in the events at the Battle of Orgreave.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) organised a mass picket of Orgreave for 18 June 1984, with the intention of blockading the plant, and ideally forcing its temporary closure. Aware of the plans by means of MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
infiltration, the police organised counter-measures.
The NUM was represented by 5,000 to 6,000 pickets from across the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The police deployed between 4,000 and 8,000 officers, and were deployed from 10 counties
County
A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain modern nations. Historically in mainland Europe, the original French term, comté, and its equivalents in other languages denoted a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of a count A county is a jurisdiction of local government in certain...
. Of these, a small number had been trained in new riot tactics following the Toxteth
Toxteth
Toxteth is an inner city area of Liverpool, England. Located to the south of the city, Toxteth is bordered by Liverpool City Centre, Dingle, Edge Hill, Wavertree and Aigburth.-Description:...
and Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
riots, while most had little or no experience in dealing with such events. There were between 40 and 50 mounted police and 58 police dogs. There were no women officers and only a handful of female picketers.
Unlike most of the strikes of the time, where picketers were kept well away from their intended positions, the strikers were escorted to a field to the north of the Orgreave plant. The field was flanked by police on all sides except the south, where the Sheffield to Worksop
Worksop
Worksop is the largest town in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England on the River Ryton at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest. It is about east-south-east of the City of Sheffield and its population is estimated to be 39,800...
railway line runs. Opinion is divided as to whether this was a deliberate arrangement.
Background to the picket
The Orgreave coking plant, where coal was turned into coke for use in steel production, was regarded by Arthur Scargill as crucial. Early in the strike, British Steel plants had been receiving "dispensations", picket-permitted movements of coal to prevent damage to their furnaces. However it was found that more than the permitted amount of coal had been delivered, so action was taken.If coal could be prevented from reaching there, the low stocks at British Steel
British Steel
British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation , formed in 1967. This was converted to a public limited company, British Steel PLC, and privatised in 1988. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...
plants such as Ravenscraig
Ravenscraig steelworks
The Ravenscraig steelworks, operated by Colvilles and latterly by British Steel, consisted of an integrated iron and steel works and a hot strip steel mill. They were located in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland....
would be exhausted and the furnaces prevented from "ticking over", causing significant economic damage to the industry.
Events of the battle
Initially the strike played out like most others, and the strikers played football for a while. But as more numbers arrived on both sides, tensions began to rise. There was constant intimidation from the police and unprovoked charges from mounted section of the police forced the miners to take cover where ever possible. The first casualty (according to the police forces involved) was PC Akers, who was hit in the face by a brick at about 8am, and taken to hospital. The commander of the police presence, Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Clement, deployed a protective cordon of long-shielded police in front of his standard officers- a fairly standard practice in such encounters.At much the same time, the lorries
Lorry
-Transport:* Lorry or truck, a large motor vehicle* Lorry, or a Mine car in USA: an open gondola with a tipping trough* Lorry , a horse-drawn low-loading trolley-In fiction:...
arrived to fetch the coke. This was the cue for the "push," in which the miners jostled the police in an attempt to break the lines. Shortly afterwards, Clement ordered the mounted police forwards. This tactic successfully delivered a retreat by the striking miners, and the horses stopped about 30 yard
Yard
A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...
s ahead of the police line before withdrawing. This allowed a space for the lorries to pass on their business, and escalated the tension on the field.
A second push was followed by a second mounted response, but this time the whole police line advanced the 30 yards. Increased stone throwing heightened the tension and the miners were warned that if they did not retreat 100 yards, short shield squads would be deployed.(various videos are available which show very little if any stone throwing, a police senior police officer said on the day that the sky turned black due to objects been thrown)
Short shield squads (police in riot gear, with batons and short shields) were a new development and would represent an offensive rather than defensive approach to riot control. This would be new to the UK if employed.
When the miners did not move back, a third mounted advance was initiated, with the short shield squads in pursuit. The result of this third advance was general panic amongst the strikers, and an increasing amount of hand to hand fighting between the two sides.
Having repelled the picket line, the police withdrew again to their original positions. The miners moved forwards again, this time with more stone-throwing.
At 9:25, the fully laden lorries began to leave the plant. This was the cue for another push by the strikers. This push was less friendly than the previous one, and again, the miners were pushed back.
Following a show of defiance by NUM leader Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill is a British politician who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1982 to 2002, leading the union through the 1984–85 miners' strike, a key event in British labour and political history...
, who walked in front of the police lines for a few moments, there was a lull in the proceedings, and most of the picketers headed to Orgreave village for refreshments. Those that were left sunbathed. The police on the other hand were hot in their uniforms, and a breakdown in logistics had left many without a drink for several hours. However, many police (including the long shields) were stood down during the lull.
What happened next is the subject of some debate. The police claim that a lorry tyre was rolled to within 20 yards of their line, and that stones started to be thrown again. Another account blamed an argument between miners and police. Given that the confrontation was not dying down, the police chose to make further charges.
This advance was more substantial than before, and left the now outnumbered pickets with no option but to cross the railway line. While most made it to the bridge, others had to scramble down the embankment and across the rails.
Some miners tried to fight police officers but were arrested, and fighting escalated to the point where miners were being beaten with truncheon
Truncheon
Truncheon may refer to:*Baton *Cutting , means of plant propagation used by gardeners*HMS Truncheon , a British submarine commissioned during Word War II and later sold to Israel...
s. The police soon reached the bridge, taking and holding the field side. Here they were bombarded by missiles, with the miners utilising a nearby scrap-yard. A car was dragged from the yard, put across the road and set alight.
The option now for the police was either to withdraw into the field and risk another push by the miners, or to advance into the village and chase off the hostile strikers. After three short-range charges (during which Arthur Scargill was one of the injured), an advance was ordered. The miners were forced into the village with a new police line forming.
But stone-throwing continued, and so about 20 mounted police were ordered to advance. This finally resulted in the dispersal of the crowds, although several police officers ran in pursuit and reportedly attacked some of the fleeing miners.
More stoning resulted in a further charge down Rotherham Lane, during which a photographer who was helping an injured miner narrowly missed a baton strike, with the incident being one of many caught on camera. Lesley Boulton was the subject of this iconic photograph, taken by John Harris, which showed her before a mounted police officer in the act of attempting to strike her with his baton. Her arm is raised, and she has a surprised expression on her face.
A member of Women Against Pit Closures
Women Against Pit Closures
Women Against Pit Closures was a political movement supporting miners and their families in the UK miners' strike of 1984–85. The movement is credited with bringing feminist ideas into practice in an industrial dispute and empowering women to take a public role in a community with a male-dominated...
, Lesley Boulton, claimed that striking miners were "sitting or standing around in small groups", adding, "there was really not a lot going on. A lot of the men had taken their t-shirts off and stuffed them in their back pockets.
It certainly wasn't the sort of thing you'd do if you were planning to attack a seriously armed police force - they had their long shields, all their protective gear on, batons, helmets on. You don't confront police like that in nothing but a pair of jeans and trainers.
So I say quite categorically that there was no intention of the miners to attack the police. I myself, with a lot of other miners, was forced to run away and take refuge."
A subsequent photograph, taken as Boulton was pulled out of range shows how close the baton came to her.
Only one newspaper of 17 published the photograph in its coverage of the day's events, leading to allegations of bias against the miners by Arthur Scargill.
Finally, the police withdrew back to the bridge, and despite continued stoning they held their line. The remaining miners built barricades from scrap, but by mid-afternoon the stone-throwing had stopped.
The aftermath
Official reports state that during the course of the confrontation, 93 arrests were made, with 51 picketers and 72 policemen injured.Ninety-five picketers were charged with riot, unlawful assembly and similar offences after the battle. A number of these were put on trial in 1987, but the trials collapsed, all charges were dropped and a number of lawsuits were brought against the police for unlawful arrest. South Yorkshire Police later agreed to pay £425,000 compensation and £100,000 in legal costs to 39 pickets in an out of court settlement.
The Battle of Orgreave in culture
In 2001, conceptual artConceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ist Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. He is a Turner Prize winner.Deller is best-known for his Battle of Orgreave , a reenactment of the actual Battle of Orgreave which occurred during the UK miners' strike in 1984.-Life and work:Jeremy Deller was born in London,...
organised a reenactment of the event commissioned by British arts organisation Artangel
Artangel
Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, radio and the web...
and assisted by reenactment logistics company EventPlan. The event took place on June 17, 2001, and was filmed by film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Mike Figgis
Mike Figgis
Michael "Mike" Figgis is an English film director, writer, and composer.-Personal life:Figgis was born in Carlisle, England and grew up in Africa. Figgis for several years had a relationship with the actress Saffron Burrows and cast her in several films...
for a Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary
Television documentary
Documentary television is a genre of television programming that broadcasts documentaries.* Documentary television series, a television series which is made up of documentary episodes....
. The reenactment featured 800 people including 280 local residents, a number of people (police and picketers) from the original encounter and re-enactors from various groups such as The Vikings, War of the Roses and The Sealed Knot, but with authentic 1980s clothing and techniques. Only the railway crossing was omitted from the reenactment, on safety grounds.
The Dire Straits
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
song "Iron Hand" from the 1991 Album On Every Street
On Every Street
On Every Street is the sixth and final studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released in 1991 . It made #1 on the UK Albums Chart.-History:...
tells the story of this infamous day.
In the video for Dizzee Rascal's song 'Sirens', Dizzee is chased by huntsmen through the fictional 'Orgreave Estate'.