Andy Boag Photographer

Treeton Colliery - Closed December 1990

The plaque was for when Siddell came to open the drift. It was a gesture for the future of Treeton Colliery and how it would be taken into the 21st century - the rebirth of the mine.

At the start the police were very quiet, they used to laugh and joke with us. As time went on Mrs Thatcher stepped it up and they started to get a bit harder with us. They’d no longer allow us to talk on the streets; we couldn’t go down the street in pairs. If you were stood talking, the police would be on your back telling you to move on. Then they started with the strong-arm stuff, swinging batons, and when the day came at Orgreave I’ve never seen anything quite as disgusting as that. The lads were getting clobbered. Quite a few men took the police to court and got compensation, including my son. He was wrongfully arrested; they thought they were getting me. I’d done nothing wrong, but because I was the secretary, organising the men they wanted me out of the way.

Maggie Thatcher spoke about us being ‘the enemy within’, and that was especially annoying and upsetting. My son was in the marines in Cyprus and Northern Ireland and was mentioned in dispatches.