Garry Rayner, aged 55, of Meadow Lane, Flanshaw, Wakefield


When the strike was called I'd worked at North Gawber, in Barnsley, for 16 years.

I became involved in the Wakefield Miners Support Group and spent many hours in Wakefield precinct manning the support group caravan, collecting money and donations of food.

The strike politicised me, taught me how cruel the government and how manipulative the police could be but, most of all, taught me the value of money."My wife was made redundant the week after the strike and we had a baby to support, with our second born towards the end of the strike. At least she was able to claim some dole – but not me as I was on strike. We had it hard, but not as hard as some.

The help we received from friends and family was tremendous, as was the support from the community. People with very little were still prepared to give us what they could.

After the strike I went to Sharlston pit but that shut eight years later. I've worked as a powder coating operative at Thurston Building Systems, Horbury Bridge, since.




Stuart Heptinstall, of Stanley Street, Wakefield

I left school in 1963 and went to work at Parkhill Colliery, Eastmoor, as an apprentice electrician. From 1976 I was elected onto the NUM branch committee and ultimately became treasurer.

In 1981 the government announced it would close mines in Wales and so the miners came here to ask for our support to save their jobs and communities. Parkhill was the first to come out on strike in support and a handful of us then went to other pits in Yorkshire and brought them out on strike.

We knew if we allowed them to close small pits in Wales, we would be next. When Parkhill closed in 1983 I went to Riccall in Selby to help sink the new shafts. We established a branch of the NUM and I was elected delegate.

In 1984 I was mandated by the branch to vote, according to Yorkshire rules, for industrial action on pit closures on grounds other than seam exhaustion.


Of the 206 miners at Riccall only 42 of us stayed out for the whole 12 months. There were a number of reasons for that.

The NUM branch was newly formed and hadn't yet had time to develop unity among members and there was no real community at Riccall – most of the men travelled from all over the district.
I took part in a lot of picketing, we went to Riccall each morning and a number of other pits as well and I did six shifts at Orgreave, which was a very frightening experience.

I managed to survive the duration of the strike by using all my savings, selling the car and with a lot of help from family and friends.


When the 42 Riccall strikers marched back to work on the day the dispute ended we insisted we should be allowed to take part in self-rescue training as we hadn't been underground for 12 months. The manager refused so we came out again for an extra day.

On the first day back I was prepared for anything and I fully expected to be sacked. That didn't happen and we set about reforming the branch and restoring unity among the men.



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