Miners' Strike 40th anniversary: Arthur Scargill, 86, to lead Doncaster commemoration

Mr Scargill, who led the National Union of Mineworkers through the bitter 1984-85 disupte, will be special guest at the parade which will take place in Hatfield later this year.

The veteran union leader, who will be 86 by the time of the event on March 9, will be joined by former miners to mark the dispute which was one of the longest and most bitter in British history.

David Douglass, the former secretary of Hatfield Main NUM branch, has helped to organise the event, which will see a parade along Broadway in Dunscroft arriving at the Hatfield Colliery headgear where Hatfield Colliery Band will perform.

There will then be a rally at the nearby Pit Club including performances and speeches from Mr Scargill, Hatfield Branch spokesman Harry Harle, pit poet Eddie Pickard and singer Joe Solo, followed by an open folk music session.

Various mining organisations, including the Women Against Pit Closures movement, will be represented at the event, which will see participants arriving at The Broadway Hotel in Dunscroft from 9.30am to 11am.

Mr Scargill, president of the NUM from 1982 to 2002, he joined the union at the age of 19 in 1957 and was its figurehead throughout the 1984–1985 miners' strike which pitted him and miners against the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.

The dispute started on 6 March 1984 as miners rebelled against planned pit closures and came to an end a year later, following an NUM vote to return to work.