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The Miners' Strike started in March 1984 and as the dispute escalated police officers from all over the country were drafted into the coalfields of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Kent.

Their role was to police the picket lines so that miners who weren't striking could get to work and deliveries of coal could be made.

Former Police Constable Pete Curtis's usual role was on the beat in Lowestoft, but pretty soon he became part of the Police Support Units (PSUs) sent from Suffolk:

"There was a scramble to put our names down for no other reason than the overtime that was on offer. It seemed at the time that they were chucking money about and there were no limits to it. We thought it would be over in a matter of weeks.

PC Curtis, who was in his late 20's, stayed in a variety of accommodation including tin hut army barracks, student digs at Sheffield University, private schools, Derbyshire police headquarters and even a holiday camp.

He said the equipment the Suffolk PSUs had was not the best: "The first time we went up by coach - there were not police transit carriers. The coach firm obviously expected it to get burnt, so they gave us a real heap of rubbish.

"That was so knackered that every time we went up a hill, we fell further and further behind the rest of the convoy.

"We had no anoraks - we had the traditional long macs like you see in Heartbeat. They weren't waterproof and we were absolutely freezing!"

Industrial relations

"We got on alright with the pickets at first," continued Pete. "The animosity only really started when people started going back and the police were perceived to be supporting the management or the government.

"One day we were at Bolsover and one morning some people from Wales came over and there was a bit of pushing, but generally there were thousands and thousands of coppers and we [Suffolk] were just doing nothing really.

"We were probably the best-paid car park attendants going. We used to be so far back [in the police lines] that they would have needed a cannon to hit us!

"Our main aim was to keep our heads down and not arrest anyone, because that would have meant court appearances.

"When we got to Yorkshire late in 1984 it was wearing pretty thin. We'd work in the coalfields and then go back to Suffolk and have to work 12-hour shifts to cover the people that had gone away that week.

"The accommodation took a turn for the worse. We stayed at a holiday camp in Cleethorpes - what a ****hole! That had running water in the rooms - down the walls either side.

"That was apparently where the miners used to go on their holidays. Well, good luck to them!

The police line-up, 1984

"We weren't involved in the big punch-up at Orgreave, which I understand was a right good riot, but we were at Cortonwood when they set fire to a Range Rover or something and pushed it towards police lines, which was a bit naughty.

"It was around this time that it got very, very bitter, and there was this drip-feed of blokes going back to work. They'd been starved out - there was no doubt about that.

"The government were not going to be beaten on this. Scargill was going to be defeated and that was apparent from day one.

"It took so long because everybody lived on top of each other in these communities and it took a brave man to say 'I ain't going to carry on striking'.

"There are still people up there not speaking to each other because at some point someone broke the strike."

"The only motivation for anyone going up there was because you were told to and we were earning good money. I would say, to a man, everybody was sick of going up there.

"I had a heated discussion with an inspector because I had some leave booked. I was told to wind my neck in and get going. So I had to change my leave and that's how it was.

"That was the time that Thatcher smashed the unions. We were refered to at the time as Maggie's bootboys, but the irony was that the government screwed us by putting our pension contributions up and doing away with virtually every condition that was to the advantage of the people on the ground.

PC Pete Curtis

"Although some would say it's still a reasonably well paid job, the pay and conditions aren't anything like they used to be and we got ours in the end as it were.

"Which I'm sure will please a lot of people!"

Pete is now a taxi driver in Beccles.