Memories of 1984

Story: Nikky Wilson

Photo: John Harris/reportdigital.co.uk

Since the beginning of March this year, there has been a lot of writing and reflecting on the 1984 Miners' Strike, marking the 25th anniversary. One Burngreave resident, Lesley Boulton, was actively involved in supporting the miners' cause and has strong memories from this time. I went to meet her at her home in Pitsmoor and to hear her own account of the Battle of Orgreave.

During the strike, she became involved with Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures because, as she put it, "you had to work quite hard to ignore what was happening in South Yorkshire that year. It began to feel rather like a police state, with police on the slip roads to the M1, stopping people and turning you back if they didn't like the look of you. Along with my friend Audrey, I started visiting some of the picket lines, just to support striking miners, and did a lot of fundraising for their families.

One particular day stands out in Lesley's memory:

"On the 18th June 1984, we decided to go to the mass picket at the Orgreave coking works - I had discovered an interest in photography and I wanted to take some pictures there. It was a beautiful June morning and, apart from a small altercation between miners and police on the road, nothing much was happening when we first arrived.

"I ambled about, taking pictures and talking to people. Because it was so hot, the men had taken their shirts off and some were playing football. But then the police started getting quite intimidating - those on foot got into 'Roman cohort' formation with their big long shields and suddenly the cavalry charged at us. We just ran! Along with a whole bunch of others, I escaped down a railway embankment but then headed back into the village to find out what was happening. It was mayhem - police were beating people with truncheons and arresting them and I was pretty dazed by it all. It was extraordinary really - the police just seemed out of control. I found it very disturbing to see that authority used in such an arbitrary and brutal way.

"Stepping over a low wall on one side of the road, I discovered a man lying on the ground, groaning, who looked like he needed medical attention. So I stood up and was about to call to a policeman for an ambulance when suddenly an officer on horseback bore down upon me - that's when the photograph was taken by John Harris. Luckily another man standing behind me just reached out and grabbed me by my jeans and yanked me to safety.

"After that, I just got myself off the pitch and it wasn't until later that I realised what a near miss it had been. But at the time, this sort of violence was happening all over the coalfields so there was nothing unusual about it. The photograph generated a lot of publicity, first in the left wing press and then at a Labour Party conference when all hell was let loose!

"In the end I was put under a lot of pressure - hate mail, phone calls and harassment of my family - but I was able to use my own photographs from the day as evidence to support other people's cases. So at least I contributed in some small way. And it didn't dim my enthusiasm - I kept up 'til the bitter end, even went to Kiveton and walked behind the miners when they marched back to work.

"Looking back, I think that day was very important for me personally because it showed me what the state was prepared to do to get its own way. It's made me rather cynical of authority ever since. The photograph has become something else, which is not to do with me at all; it's about the 'boot stamping on a human face forever' as George Orwell wrote in his novel '1984'."

I asked Lesley if she would do it again. Unsurprisingly, her reply was, "Of course, if the cause was right. I wouldn't allow a man on a horse with a stick to put me off!"

If you want to know more about Lesley's story and the stories of other women working in industry, then look out for an exhibition by South Yorkshire Women's Development Trust later in the year. You can contact them by phone (tel 01709 834441 - ask for Julie or Jess) or email them at industry.sywdt@btconnect.com or try their website: www.sywol.org.uk