The 1964 miners' strike was a dispute like no other with flying pickets and running battles with police. Beverly Addy takes a look behind the riot shields with one of Durham's commanding officers. ********** Between March 1984 and March 1985, 11,000 pitmen were arrested, 11 people died, 200 miners were jailed and 1,000 of them were sacked.
Eddie Marchant.
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While no-one lost their lives in the North-East, police and miners played cat and mouse throughout the year-long dispute and as tensions mounted the stakes rose and violence ensued. Intelligence sources initially gave good information and ranks of officers would be ready for mass pickets. The two sides would square up across the pit gates. But union leaders tightened their communication network. Details of flying pickets were revealed on a need-to-know basis, leaving miners to join "mystery tour" buses setting off to unrevealed destinations. Police then had to pick up quick on where the convoys were heading and give chase, hoping to get there first to position themselves between strikers and their target. Retired Durham Deputy Chief Constable Eddie Marchant, 63, was just one of the superintendents who had to co-ordinate the legions of officers during the stand-off. "The first weeks were very quiet. No miners were trying to go in. There was no need to have major picketing. The first real picketing was in the May at the Inkerman opencast site in Tow Law. "There was heavy picketing. In fairness to the people who owned the Banks company, they did restrict the movement of vehicles in and out. Once the main batch of pickets left by early afternoon, the company brought the vehicles in. "If we had tried to bring them in before that there would have been serious conflict, and what's the point for the sake of three or four hours? "There were coaches turning up with miners - they got a couple of pounds if they turned up to picket. But at first some of them were just sat over the hedge playing cards. As the strike went on they didn't get away with that. "There was a small hard core who never put themselves in the front line. "They would always stand in the back and shove their colleagues into the police and the police would push back. They would throw stones and missiles. "They would do this even when no-one was coming in and out, so sometimes I would shout for the officers to break their lines. The miners would all rush through and then they would have to come back. It was accepted practice, a bit of pushing and shoving." During the strike 11,291 people were arrested nationally, of whom 8,392 were charged, mainly for breach of the peace, obstructing the police and obstructing the highway. There were some more serious charges, though those for rioting were dropped for lack of evidence. Eddie says arrests weren't common in County Durham during the strike and they were usually just for breach of the peace. So it was with grave concern that he watched the TV coverage of violent scenes at Orgreave, South Yorkshire. "These scenes were quite horrendous. On the other side of the coin the Durham miner was more level- headed. I had more faith in the Durham miner. "Secondary picketing is technically illegal. We didn't enforce that though. All we did was try and maintain the peace and control things. The whole thrust was to avoid major conflict. "At first they were very predictable. That changed, it was literally flying pickets. We were never far behind but we were having to charge after them. We were literally following them at one stage." Eddie chuckles as he remembers one time when the police arrived after the pickets had taken up their stand. "I remember going to somewhere over Willington. They suddenly decided to picket at this site and when we got there, there was a narrow lane with a barbed wire fence all the way down to these business premises. But they allowed us to go through to get into position." But suddenly the stakes were raised. "Real problems started in the August when Paul Wilkinson, who lived at Bowburn, decided to go back to work at Easington. "We were conscious that he would never be able to work again in Easington Colliery after the dispute." Every third week superintendents like Eddie were put on strike duty. A special command post outside the main control room was set up to co-ordinate action. That's where Eddie was when the first miner went back in Durham. "The situation first hit home when I went to Inkerman in the May; the traumas and tensions of the dispute and the potential dangers. Until you operate at ground level you don't have a true feel for it. "But then there was the riot at Easington Colliery when Wilkinson went in. That's when I started getting seriously concerned." On the day Paul Wilkinson returned to work there was over £10,000 worth of damage. "The pickets forced their way into the colliery. Bricks were thrown. Windows were broken. Cars were damaged. There were over 1,000 miners on site. "I talked to the officers who came back. They said they had been genuinely in fear for their lives. They were cornered in the colliery yard and were pleased to get out of it in one piece." Officers were shipped in from nearby Cumbria and Cleveland, and also from South Wales and the Met. But Eddie says wherever possible it was Durham Police who faced the Durham miners. "Durham police officers tend to come from County Durham. They often had brothers and fathers in the mines. Some had even worked in the pits early in their careers. "There's a better relationship. You know how to talk to your own people. While there were tensions and conflict it was easier to control when it was our own people. Officers from other forces weren't as sympathetic. "I remember one big day. I was ground commander at Hawthorn, in Murton, the coke plant, when a guy went back to work there for the first time. He was supposed to go back in about 6.30am. "But there had been some misunderstanding between him and the coal board about the pick up times. It went on and on and on. It got to about 9.30am by which time the pickets from Sunderland had done their picketing and were shipped across to Hawthorn. "I estimated that there were about 1,500 to 2,000 miners there. I had just over 700 police. "One of the inspectors from Cleveland came to me and asked if he could take one of his officers out of the line. I asked why. He said the officer was standing face-to-face with his brother. That's the trouble with the strike. It put brother against brother and father against son." Eddie was born and bred in Durham. He spent 44 years with the county's police force and when he retired he chose to stay in the county with his wife Eileen, 54. His love of the area and its people is apparent. "I had great respect for the miners. It is a sad thing, the loss of mining communities and the loss of the jobs. But I wouldn't have wanted my children to go down the pit. It is a very hard life." * On Monday cross the picket line with the North-East miners who went back to work. Page 2: Shared trauma changed the culture of policing in community | 
