Andy Boag Photographer

Denby Grange Colliery - Closed 1991

There was approximately sixty-five of us that had stopped out on strike for the full twelve months, and there was nearly three hundred people who worked here. People from other collieries nicknamed this place ‘Henry Grange’ because you weren’t allowed to call the people that went back to work scabs. So we used to call them ‘Henrys’ so the management couldn’t get at us for that. We were the minority. We got treated worse than those that had gone back to work, they were looked after.

As much as people talk about Arthur Scargill, he was right in what he said. He never said anything about a pit that wasn’t true. Unfortunately he was a bad general, he did it at the wrong time, also he was on television too much telling everyone what he was going to do. Margaret Thatcher was adamant she was going to crush the NUM, which she did.