3 March 2015 saw the 30th anniversary of the return to work of miners involved in the year long-strike in 1984 and 1985 against pit closures and job losses. The NUM – the National Union of Mineworkers – stood down the strike, never called it off, never surrendered, and then marched back to the pitheads with banners flying and bands playing.
Their unity and dignity intact, the miners were starved back to work, having borne the brunt of everything the Thatcher government could throw at them and isolated by the year-long hardships.
The once 200,000-strong NUM, mining communities and pit villages were then almost annihilated by pit closures. A handful of pits remain in Britain today, and there are fewer than 1,000 NUM members.