Round 2 at the Pits

On one side stood 3,300 police, armed with truncheons and riot shields. On the other was a crowd of about 6,500 striking coal miners and their supporters, attempting to blockade the Orgreave coking works near Sheffield. Among the demonstrators was Arthur Scargill, the combative president of the National Union of Mineworkers, nursing a head injury. "All I know," said Scargill, "is that these bastards rushed in and this guy hit the back of my head with a riot shield." Not so, countered South Yorkshire Assistant Chief Constable Tony Clement, who said that Scargill had fallen down a grassy slope and "hit his head" on a wooden beam.

During five hours of clashes, the second round in three weeks of industrial conflict at Orgreave, angry pickets showered the police with stones, bricks and bottles; in retaliation, the police charged them on horseback and on foot. By the end of the day, nearly 100 miners had been arrested, and 51 miners and 28 police were reported injured. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was unfazed by the events. Declared she: "The law must and will continue to be upheld."