Battle of Orgreave 40 years on: Ex-miners call for inquiry into picket line violence

• Report by Emma Wilkinson

There is little sign today of the trouble which flared at Orgreave 40 years ago.

A housing estate sits on the site of the former South Yorkshire coking plant. Peace now largely reigns.

But, for those who lived through it, the memories abide.

"It was a frightening time," says former miner Kevin Horne. "I try not to think about it now."

Kevin was one of thousands of miners who were involved in violent clashes with police, in what became known as the Battle of Orgreave, on 18 June 1984.

The incident – three months into the miners' strike – happened after the National Union of Mineworkers organised a mass picket to prevent deliveries of coal arriving at the plant, near Rotherham.

Almost 5,000 officers in riot gear were sent to police the picket.

Opinion remains divided about who acted first, but violence erupted on both sides.

Kevin said he became an unwitting accomplice to the overreaction of police.

"The police stopped me and said, 'will you give us a hand to move these stones - there's ambulances waiting to come down, with pickets in'," he said.

"So reluctantly me and a couple more lad, threw these stones to one side. The ambulances never came - police and the horses came and chased us back down the field."

The mounted police forced the miners up a field as stones and missiles were thrown. Ninety-five miners were arrested.

More than 100 people on both sides were injured.

Filmmaker Daniel Gordon has made a documentary about the events. He said looking into the history of the battle had opened his eyes.

"I thought I knew about the strike and I thought I knew about the effects that it had and I thought I knew about Orgreave and the more I got into it, the more I realise how little I knew," he said.

"The line that gets me every time is when they march back to work after a year, there is no deal, and one of the guys says 'I stuck my chest out and held my head high, but I was dead inside.' It just gets me every time."

Gordon Bird, who ran a newsagent in the area, said Orgreave changed the relationship between police and the miners, in some cases irreversibly.

He said: "In my shop [before the Battle of Orgreave] we arranged to have a raffle and the prize was a chicken and all the vegetables - enough to feed a family of four - and the police in particular put theirs back and also put some more prizes in, so that more miners got their Christmas dinner.

"What took place on that picket line - some people will never like the police, whatever they do, because of what went on that day."

South Yorkshire Police has said it intends to publish as many documents relating to Orgreave as possible within the next couple of years. For the likes of Jane Colbourne and Susan Cairns' that kind of transparency is long overdue.

Their father, miner Tony Arkwright, compiled pictures, cuttings and hand written notes documenting what happened.

Jane said: "This is something that we can sit down with our grandkids and say 'great grandad did that.' This is going to be history to the kids of the future. And I think it's important that the true picture, the fair picture of what happened is out there.""He got photos that the press wouldn't show and it's there for anybody to see. And I hope there is an inquiry at some point, because a lot of lives were ruined."For Kevin Horne only an independent, Hillsborough-style inquiry into the events at Orgreave will sufficiently "If they could do that, then everything would come out. That's my dream, like. So that people in the pub, who you've talked to over the years, know that you've been telling the truth."

What do the political parties say about an Orgreave inquiry?

On the 40th anniversary of the battle, a petition was handed in at Westminster calling for a formal inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave.

We asked each of the main political parties whether they supported the idea.

The Conservative Party told us it has no plans to conduct an inquiry.

Labour's manifesto includes a commitment to an investigation.

The Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Reform Party all say they are supportive of an inquiry.

Meanwhile, South Yorkshire Police said it would be inappropriate for the force to seek to "explain or defend the actions of the force in 1984".

It said in a statement: "We have been very clear about our intention to make as much of the relevant documentation as is possible available to the public.

"To that end, a small team, funded by the then Police and Crime Commissioner, is reviewing and cataloguing all of the material held by the force and ensuring anything released is done so in line with the requirements of GDPR. There are 1,474 files of material which amount to 82,913 pages.

"When this work is complete, we will seek to follow the process undertaken by both the Home Office and the Cabinet Office, and place the documents in a recognised public archive. This is expected to take up to another 18 months to two years."