Ceremony in Outwood this weekend to mark 50th anniversary of miners' strike

The strike, which lasted nearly two months, led to power shortages and led to the Battle of Saltley Gate in which Yorkshire miners clashed with police.

A ceremony will be held outside the Memorial Hall on Victoria Street in Outwood, led by Wakefield Council’s Charlie Keith.

He said: “I’m always looking at anniversaries and this one jumped straight out at me, that it’s been 50 years.

“This was a totemic strike that involved a lot of working class people.”

Sparked by wage demands of the workers, coal bosses were hesitant to approve pay increases because the coal industry was already in decline by the early 1970s.

The strike began on January 9, 1972 and ended on February 28, but only after violent clashes with the law - behaviour that would characterise the year-long miners strike of 1984.

Reflecting on the energy issues of the present day, Coun Keith said: “We have come a long way, but in some respects we’ve gone backwards, there are things happening today than can be traced back to that fault line in 1972.

“It started out with a banner we’d had made but it’s snowballed to this, so we’ll be having a ceremony on Sunday at 11am.”

People can gather inside the Memorial Hall from 9.40am this Sunday.

The banner will be tied the pit wheel outside the hall. It will later be donated to the National Coal Mining Museum.