THE strike provided a silver lining for a couple of local engineering companies.

They suddenly picked up business for their replica miners' lamps ... from police officers drafted into Notts to control picketing.

Keen to pick up a souvenir of their time in Notts, many police officers, brought in from the south of England and the West Country, bought the locally made items.

David Bramley, who ran a Woodborough Road workshop, said: "Trade was reasonable – but now it's thriving."

On May 8, 1984, Arthur Scargill led a peaceful march in support of the dispute through the streets of Mansfield.

Watched by local MPs Frank Haynes (Ashfield) and Don Concannon (Mansfield), he told thousands of people: "We are winning the pit dispute," claiming, "what we are doing today is what we were instructed to do by our members."

On the same day, in Southwell Minster, the Bishop of Southwell the Rt Rev Denis Wakeling predicted a bright future for the coal industry, if the "sad and bitter" dispute could be solved.

THE plight of miners – both strikers and those who carried on working – reached far beyond the coalfield boundaries.

Devon B&B landlady Sally Lee offered a free holiday to working miners in Notts.

Meanwhile, to help the strikers, miners' organisations in the Soviet Union offered a free fortnight at a Black Sea resort.

"It is in recognition of the hardship miners and their families have been prepared to endure," said an NUM spokesman.

NEARLY 200 celebrities signed up to an appeal to raise funds for striking miners.

They were led by Richard Burton, whose roots were in the mining villages of South Wales.

However, his wife Elizabeth Taylor withdrew her name because she didn't want to be involved in the "political aspects" of the campaign and instead sent a message of "great sympathy and support" for the miners' wives and children".

THE man known as "Silver Birch" who had toured coalfields urging miners to go back to work, was revealed to be Bevercotes miner Chris Butcher.

Now retired, Mr Butcher refuses to talk about the strike and his role in the back-to-work campaign, recently answering a request by saying: "Now it ain't going to bring pits back, it ain't going to make the people who were on strike like me any more."

AT the height of the dispute Derbyshire County Council drew up plans to distribute thousands of food parcels for children of striking miners.