Dunfermline's Bob Young recalls the miners' strike 40 years on

For the former Fife councillor, it was a period which has shaped his life.

One of 500 Scottish miners to be convicted of offences during the lengthy dispute, Bob was arrested a total of five times and was the only sacked miner in Britain to win his job back.

Recalling his memories of the bitter, year-long dispute, Bob told the Press: "The day the strike started, Arthur Scargill was down the pits with me. He went and phoned, and said that Cortonwood was on strike. That was the day the strike started.

"I was branch chair of the NUM at Comrie. Scargill addressed the early back shift and he addressed the back shift and the shift coming up so everyone knew Cortonwood was coming out to strike, and everyone knew that the remit for us to come out on strike if that was what the men wanted.

"I went round all the shifts and the pit decided 100 per cent to go out on strike."

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When the strikes started, Bob stood on picket lines across the country and was also, as chair of the Dunfermline strike centre, involved in helping get support to those who needed it.

"We organised all the buses for the strikes, whatever was going on," he said. "Five times I was lifted. At Motherwell, Glasgow, Hunterston and the Cartmore and Frances, where I had started as a 14-year-old.

"I got charged with breach of the peace. The original charge was resisting, obstructing, molesting and hindering police officers in execution of their duty on said occasion, and pushing and struggling with police officers."

In attendance at the so-called 'Battle of Orgreave', when thousands of police and pickets clashed at the South Yorkshire steel coking plant, Bob said there was still bitterness there over the police behaviour throughout the protests.

Ex miner Bob Young (Image: Newsquest)

"I had organised for the bus to go to Orgreave. It was lovely weather. We had loaded the back of the bus with sandwiches and off we went," he said.

"When I look at it, there were police on the bridge and a police car then came out in front of us with 'follow me' on it. I am saying 'here we go guys' and we are following this police car. It takes us right down into a business park. I was thinking to myself that is strange.

"We had been charged twice by the horses. I have been in the army and been in places where they were firing bullets and that was nothing on this.

"One of the guys couldn't have fought with my cat. He got arrested, When we got back on to the bus, they were like, who is missing? We got home and found out he had been arrested. I went back down, and out came this mobbing and rioting charge."

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All the accused later walked from court when it emerged police reports had been falsified.

"Since then, we have had Hillsborough, the Birmingham Six, this has been going on for years," said Bob. "I was a councillor, chair of the licensing committee, and worked with police. Are we any different today? I would like to hope they are but would I trust them? No."

With no income, the strike caused pressures for those taking a stand, but Bob said help was available to him and his colleagues.

"I had the support of my family and I was lucky in that," he said. "I didn't drink and I didn't smoke, so in financial terms, we managed to get through without us losing the house.

"I was chair of the strike centre in Dunfermline. Part of my remit was to go and talk to building societies and banks about guys who had mortgages.

"I have to give the banks and building societies the credit, I cannot remember going to one meeting where they said no. They agreed to suspend payments until the strikes were sorted out. They were all very good to us."

During all his duties during the strike, Bob had to cope with the additional pressure of knowing that union officials were targets at any event.

Former Dunfermline councillor Bob Young was arrested after protests outside the Cartmore pit in Lochgelly. (Image: Newsquest)

He saw photos of him and his colleagues in the back of police vans and he had his phone tapped.

"The government were sponsoring it and supporting it and that is the frightening thing," he added. "It was the lies that were told about us. You were getting the BBC and others saying they were out on strike fighting for a fair wage.

"We were fighting to save our jobs. We knew they were going to close the pits and that is exactly what happened."

Despite eventually getting his job back, Bob was out of work soon after when the news hit that his pit was to be shut.

"I still see myself as a sacked miner. When they were closing the pits at the end of the 1986 strike, everyone got a chance to got to Solsgirth or wherever, but I just got sacked."

Bob took up a position with Gang Forth, an organisation which helped to get unemployed people back into the work place, where he ended up in the role of Managing Director and helped equip many former miners, and others, for new careers.

After being elected onto Fife Council, Bob was put on to the coalfield community campaign which he is still involved in to this day.

He has also a trustee of the Coal Regeneration Trust and is a member of the Retired Miners' Branch which meets regularly in Oakley.

He plans to mark the 40th anniversary at an event in Dalkeith on Saturday, March 9, as well as attending other events across Scotland and England in the coming months.