Battle of Orgreave

The Battle of Orgreave was a violent confrontation on 18 June 1984 between pickets and officers of the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) and other police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, at a British Steel Corporation (BSC) coking plant at Orgreave, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was a pivotal event in the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, and one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history. Seventy-one picketers were charged with riot and 24 with violent disorder. At the time, riot was punishable by life imprisonment. The trials collapsed when the evidence given by the police was deemed "unreliable". Gareth Peirce, who acted as solicitor for some of the pickets, said that the charge of riot had been used "to make a public example of people, as a device to assist in breaking the strike", while Michael Mansfield called it "the worst example of a mass frame-up in this country this century". In June 1991, the SYP paid £425,000 in compensation to 39 miners for assault, wrongful arrest, unlawful detention and malicious prosecution. A new inquiry was set up in 2025 to investigate the event.

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524 m

Orgreave Colliery platform

Orgreave Colliery platform was a workman's halt built to serve the miners working at Orgreave Colliery in South Yorkshire, England. These workmen's trains or "Paddy Mails" were operated between Sheffield Victoria and Treeton Colliery at shift change times being hauled along the main line to Orgreaves Colliery Sidings (the extra 's' being added by the railway in error but never corrected) where the main line locomotive was exchanged for one belonging to the colliery company, usually "Rothervale No.6" which was fitted with vacuum brakes. The platform was situated almost at the bottom of an incline with a gradient of approx. 1 in 27 (37 ‰) to be climbed to reach the main line with the return trains. It was often the case that the train was reversed a short distance to more level track to give it a run at the gradient and a banking locomotive provided, sometimes on damp days too. The "Paddy Mails" ceased running in May 1932 due to parts of the bridges between Orgreave and Treeton being washed away when the River Rother flooded. The line was repaired but the "Paddy Mails" were not re-introduced, being replaced by "Pit Buses" operated by Sheffield Corporation along the main routes from the city centre and the local area. One of the "Paddy Mails" was involved in an accident on 13 December 1926.

Orgreave Colliery

Orgreave Colliery was a coal mine situated adjacent to the main line of the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway about 5 miles (8 km) east of Sheffield and 3.5 miles (6 km) south west of Rotherham. The colliery is within the parish of Orgreave, from which it takes its name. In June 1984, the adjacent coking works was the scene of a vicious confrontation between police and striking miners during the Miners' Strike.

Waverley, South Yorkshire

Waverley is a civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in the southeastern part of the county of South Yorkshire, England. It is situated about 140 miles (230 km) north of London, 3.52 miles (5.66 km) from Rotherham town centre and 3.96 miles (6.37 km) from Sheffield City Centre. The parish was formed on 1 April 2019 from parts of the parishes of Catcliffe and Orgreave. The Advanced Manufacturing Park has been developed in the area of the later parish since the 2000s, partly on land reclaimed from a former opencast coal mine.

838 m

Rotherwood exchange sidings

Rotherwood exchange sidings were set at the eastern extremity of the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath electric railway between Orgreave Lane and Retford Road, on the south eastern boundary of the City of Sheffield with the Parish of Orgreave, within Rotherham. The sidings, located approximately at milepost 46¾ (measured from Manchester Piccadilly), consisted of two sets of lines split between the up and down sides of the line, and were laid out for the purpose of locomotive changing on trains passing through the area. Originally steam, later diesel locomotives brought trains, particularly coal from the Nottinghamshire coalfield to the down sidings, where the motive power was changed to electric traction for the run over Woodhead to Mottram yard where it was changed again for steam (later diesel) to continue its journey. The returning empty traffic was changed over in the up sidings. Entry to the down sidings was by Permissive block regulations from Woodhouse East Junction and on busy days trains would queue for the full distance. The sidings were controlled by a British Railways built signal box set at the east end of the up sidings on the down side of the line.