Quote Originally Posted by sherwoodmag View Post
You know nothing,I lived in Ollerton Notts during the strike it was a divided village,2000 cops were based in Proteus Army Camp next to the village,there was soldiers in mufti beating up people if they didn't have Notts accents,the village was full of miners from the North East and Scotland who had lived there for years one of my mates from Durham had his leg broken and the cops got a lad originally from Yorkshire into a police van and kicked the crap out of him from the waist down he was black not black and blue.As for attacking houses the Met police attacked the village of Rainworth through the night breaking down doors and scaring women and kids looking for people assisting the strikers.I had just left the Merchant Navy and worked for two Scottish brickies we were forever getting stopped on our way to and from work and accused of being flying pickets,I can still feel the baton off one of them hitting me in the kidneys.As for coal the port of Immingham used to export millions of tons of coal per year now the docks have been expanded to import more coal from Poland.Ironically one of my brothers who had lost his job when Maltby Pit closed was employed at the docks to build the new import facilities.
I worked at Daw Mill in Warwickshire and Bevercotes in Nottingham for about a year. I wasn't in the UK during the troubles but I had only respect for the miners and their plight, the scenes I saw on TV were horrendous, seems some of the cops took great delight in what they were doing. By the way, both Daw Mill and Bevercotes were two of the most productive and modern mines in the UK with huge coal reserves, both gone now.