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What's it like to see your friends and neighbours arrested, or to rely on charity to feed your family?

We hear from the people who were there through the miners strike of 1984. Read and listen to more strike stories by clicking on the links below.

7: Impact on the community

My name's Kate. At the time in the 60s the government policy was to close a whole load of the pits. Royston pit was closed and that was originally called Monkton pit. My husband was working away at the time and I was too, coming from Scotland.

Most men don't actually tell you… it's a job, that's all it was to them: their job, their livelihood, their life. The actual strike itself, what the men were out on strike for was - and being an absolute socialist I agree with- the fact that people should have jobs.

And this strike wasn't for money, it was for jobs and people's livelihoods were going to be devastated by it. It wasn't just the pits that closed, it was different things, different areas, different types of work. It was like throwing a pebble into a pond and all the rings it made.

8: The soup kitchen

I'm Sylvia Jones and I live in Royston. Well my husband worked in the pit, he wasn't a miner but he worked on the top and because of that I got involved with the struggle.

I joined when the soup kitchen started. Before the strike when he was working, it was purely and simply a job, but when the struggle started I became more aware and he sort of talked about things more.

Then when we went on strike we came to the soup kitchen as a family actually, for the support, and for the food too.

When I first went in to be honest I felt embarrassed. I felt embarrassed 'cos to me it seemed like a charity thing, and we all tend to shy from taking charity. And once I sat down - we sat down and were made welcome and everyone was talking to us - I then realised that I should be on the other side of it. I was quite capable of doing what these women were doing.

And I didn't know any of them because I came from the south and I'd moved up here and married a Yorkshireman. So I just sort of went and introduced myself and asked if I could help and it snowballed from there.

9: Police and pickets

All my friends were miners. We used to go into the pub and we'd have collections for them, do food hampers for them but it was really, really bad.

There were a lot of innocent people getting arrested, for standing up for their rights and that, it was really bad. Y'know like the way they brought the police in, we called them the Flying Squad.

They brought them in from Nottingham, from all over - London, everywhere and that. And they were using brutal tactics. But I think the only thing that really stands out was when Scargill went on the picket line and he accused police of pushing him but he really fell down the hill.

It always sticks in my mind that, y'know. He stood up for his rights and he was a hundred percent behind the men and that. We've all read the stories, what happened, but that really stands out.

Read and listen to more strike stories by clicking on the links below.