The UK Government has announced there will be an inquiry into the famed Battle of Orgreave, to the huge relief of miners who have spent 41 years demanding justice
An inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave 41 years ago will finally be launched, with miners saying they now have hope “the truth will come out in our lifetime”.
Miners said they were left “overwhelmed” and “elated” with this victory after a long and hard fight for justice.
The Battle of Orgreave was one of the bloodiest clashes in the history of industrial disputes which saw miners savagely battered by an army of police.
The miners said they were thrilled the public will hear the truth about the most violent clashes in the year-long strike. Picketers were hit with truncheons and fled police mounted on horses in terror at the Orgreave Coking Plant in the hot summer’s day of June 18, 1984.
The late Queen Elizabeth is said to have described footage of officers charging into miners as “awful” – but in 2016 the Tories rejected pleas for a probe.
The investigation announced by the Home Office today and set to launch in the autumn will look at the events surrounding the clashes which caused 120 injuries.
In total, 95 picketers were arrested and initially charged with riot and violent disorder, but all charges were later dropped after evidence was discredited.
Campaigners welcomed the Labour government’s decision – but said it was important to remember the miners who had died before the historic announcement. Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign Secretary (OTJC), Kate Flannery, told The Mirror: “We’ve waited 41 years for this and we now need the truth. We need it exposed and we need the public to be told the truth as well.”
Miners told The Mirror how they had suffered decades of “pain” – fearing they would all die before they got justice.
Carl Parkinson, now 61, from Brampton in South Yorkshire, was one of the youngest to get ‘drop kicked’ by a police officer at Orgreave. He was so worried they would never get an inquiry, he had taught his grandchildren, aged 11 to 17, about the miners’ strike, so they could carry his fight for him.
“All we want is the truth out there. I was educating all the four grandchildren about the strike just in case we didn’t get the inquiry and I died so they could chase it up and carry on. They asked ‘was it scar?’ and I’d tell them; ‘yeh, it were to be honest!’ I was a young baby back then, 20 years old and I was the youngest to be set on.”
Carl is convinced the ‘police officer’ dressed in a boiler suit, who attacked him, was ‘military’.
“It’s been very very painful to be honest, we knew when we went there that something was not right. It wasn’t only the way it was policed – it was the aggression of the police. How nobody was killed or seriously injured amazes me. It makes me sad. I just want the truth and freedom from this pain.”
He praised The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign and admitted to feeling “a bit emotional but happy. I did have one or two drinks and might have one or two more after Monday.”
Describing what happened, he said as he was in a field when he saw them ‘starting to shove’ with truncheons coming over their shields, so he turned back.
As horses charged, he ran towards some banking with “this Welsh lad”.
But when they got to the top they were trapped, there were brambles and nettles below them and a live railway line.
“We just stood there and looked at each other. I put my hands up and surrendered and this ‘policeman’ with a boiler suit with no number, drop-kicked me in the chest,” he said.
Asked if it hurt, Carl said: “It was more of a shock than anything else. I thought he was coming towards me to arrest me not attack me. He didn’t say a sausage.”
“I was still conscious. Next thing I saw was this Welsh lad who came down face first. We were cut to pieces and then crossed over the railway line.”
He said as a result they ended up in the village of Orgreave itself.
“That’s where we encountered horses again. I saw some miners beaten with truncheons by police on horseback. As they were on the floor, another element, the snatch squad police were coming up and picking them up and arresting them.
“They forced us to the village so they could get us for rioting. No shadow of a doubt with that. To be a riot and unlawful assembly, it had to be in a public place. The field wasn’t but the village was.”
“All we wanted was the right to go to work in a coal mine which not many people wanted to do anyway.”
Kate, from OTJC, told The Mirror it was “important” the inquiry is carried out quickly “because many miners are no longer around and the ones that are, are quite elderly. Also many of those are ill and this needs to happen in their lifetime”.
About hearing the news an inquiry was finally going to be held, she admitted to feeling “overwhelmed” explaining: “When you’ve fought so hard and so long for something and it’s presented to you it’s hard to believe it’s true and actually going to happen.
“I would say we were all very emotional and still are but now we need to be clear about what it actually means.” She said they welcomed the Home Office promising it will be quick. But she warned police forces not to destroy any documents relating to the miners’ strike.
“We need all the secret documents that have been kept under wraps to be made public.” She told of her shock when it recently emerged Northumbria police admitted last April they had destroyed miners’ documents.
It is believed those papers included the notorious footage of the miner being hit by a police officer over the head with a truncheon.
“We feel incredibly anxious about the fact that vital and important information has been destroyed and could be currently destroyed by other police forces. We urge all police forces to keep the information as requested by Yvette Cooper back in 2016.”
She said this information, and Government documents, need to be made public so we can find out who “orchestrated it all “and “why they did”.
Kate, who was a member of Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures during the miners strike, helped launch the campaign 13 years ago.
“All our families worked in coal or steel and we knew what the closure of coal mines meant for the area and industry in Britain.
“We knew the impact it would have on communities if coal mines closed down. We also knew this wasn’t about pit closures or uneconomic pits, this was about the Tory Government wanting to destroy trade unions and organised Labour.
“We’ve been going for 13 years but people have been calling for an Orgreave inquiry since it happened.
After hearing the news, she said: “I was overwhelmed. There are two expressions we used, which were ‘cautiously elated’ and ‘cautiously optimistic.’”
Former miner Kevin Horne, who was arrested at Orgreave, said he was “elated” to hear the news but said it was “important” to remember those who have died before this historic moment.
About hearing the news an inquiry was finally going to be held, she admitted to feeling “overwhelmed”.
“When you’ve fought so hard and so long for something and it’s presented to you it’s hard to believe it’s true and actually going to happen,” she said. “I would say we were all very emotional and still are…”
She also warned police forces not to destroy any documents relating to the miners’ strike.
“We need all the secret documents that have been kept under wraps to be made public.”
She told of her shock when it recently emerged Northumbria police admitted last April they had destroyed miners’ documents.
“We feel incredibly anxious about the fact that vital and important information has been destroyed and could be currently destroyed by other police forces.”
She said Government documents need to be released, so they can see who “orchestrated it all”.
Ex-miner Kevin Horne, who was arrested at Orgreave, said he was “elated” to hear the news but said it was “important” to remember those who have died before this historic moment.
Kevin, 76, from Mexborough in South Yorkshire, said he feared he himself would die, before hearing the news.
“I was getting worried as I get older. I was getting worried I was going to die before I got an inquiry but some have died,” he told The Mirror.
“I’ve got a list of 95 miners arrested and charged that day and some of them have obviously died,” he said.
“I think I’ve got half a dozen down as passed away,” he said, pointing out that this number may not be up to date.
The former miner, however, did praise the Labour Government for finally answering their relentless call for an inquiry by saying: “Good on them!”.
The announcement today delivers on Labour’s election manifesto vow to bring the truth “to light”.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Every community should have confidence in their police, but we know what happened at Orgreave cast a shadow over communities in Yorkshire and other mining areas.
“The violent scenes and subsequent prosecutions raised concerns that have been left unanswered for decades, and we must now establish what happened.
“I pay tribute to the campaigners who never stopped in their search for truth and justice, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as we build an inquiry that gets the answers they and their communities deserve.”
The inquiry will have powers to compel witnesses and the release of evidence.
It will be led by the Bishop of Sheffield, the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox.
He said he did not “underestimate the weight of expectation or the significance of the task”.
The National Union of Mineworkers General Secretary, Chris Kitchen, said: “It is hugely welcome to see this government fulfil its pledge made in the Labour Party manifesto to the mining community…”