IT was the announcement to close Cortonwood Colliery that led to the bitter 1984-85 miners' strike.
More than 50,000 Yorkshire miners, including 14,000 in Barnsley, came out strike in support of the 850 men at the colliery at Brampton.
The NCB said there was no demand for high quality coking coal but the union said it would be the first of many closures.
Other union areas joined the strike but the flashpoint was in the Nottingham coalfield, where miners demanded a ballot to strike and where there were clashes involving pickets, miners and police.
By autumn, 1984, miners were beginning to return to work in Yorkshire and there was more violence. The strike lasted until March, 1985.
By the middle of 1985 the Barnsley coalfield was in terminal decline and Grimethorpe, the last pit, closed in the early 1990s.
