A new book by a Huddersfield lecturer has revived memories of the miners’ strike. Former University lecturer GRANVILLE WILLIAMS has edited Shafted: The Media, The Miners’ Strike and The Aftermath. It is a collection of reminiscences, good and bad, about the infamous dispute. Lesley Boulton, one of the people who has helped in the book, was at the South Yorkshire plant Orgreave which saw some of the most terrifying clashes between picketing miners and police. Here is her story.

A friend and I drove to Orgreave and we parked in the Asda car park. We got there about 10am and it was a gloriously sunny day... miners and sympathisers, playing football in the car park and slowly making their way down to a field over the bridge.

By the time we got down to the field it was quite busy with smatterings of miners dotted here and there, just sitting around talking and having a laugh. Many had their shirts off and were making the most the good weather. So, the miners and supporters like myself were, on the whole, very relaxed and there was no sense of what was to come; nobody expected that the day would turn into this horrific, violent confrontation.

The miners clearly weren’t planning a battle – men don’t go into battle with their shirts tucked into their back pockets! The police, on the other hand, were stood in massed ranks, many dressed in full riot gear.

It was very odd, almost like they were actually wanting something to happen. They weren’t prepared simply for the possibility of violence.

Of course, we now know that the police had been instructed by their political masters that this was the day to show the miners what was what and who was who. It was showdown time and the police were spoiling for a fight.

It was time to show the hoi polloi who was in control, even if it meant the police had to kick the **** out of them.

When it eventually kicked off, the police charged up the field, the miners retreated into the village, and both the miners and police set up barricades. A small group of miners started throwing stones and the police charged them, at which point I dived behind a wall and I came out only when they’d gone.

I then started walking down to the bus stop; just before it was a short wall and behind the wall was an injured miner who looked to have cracked ribs and was clearly in a lot of pain.

I was really concerned and I asked a policeman who was stood in the street to get an ambulance, at which point a mounted policeman came out of nowhere, swinging his truncheon at me. I only just managed to get out of the way thanks to a miner who pulled me to one side.

That’s exactly what John Harris captured on film. The police were clearly enjoying themselves...they were excited, out of control...it felt a bit like Peterloo but without the swords.