Manton and the 1984 ballot case

In August 1984 two working miners from Manton Colliery, near Worksop, took the Yorkshire area of the National Union of Mineworkers to the High Court, arguing that its strike was unlawful without a ballot. Their case was heard with one from North Derbyshire, and the rulings led to the union's £200,000 fine and the sequestration of its funds.

The mining history in this record

Manton Colliery lay geographically in north Nottinghamshire but was in the Yorkshire area of both the National Coal Board and the NUM. Its miners had voted overwhelmingly against the 1984 strike, yet police advised that their safety crossing picket lines could not be guaranteed. In August two of them, Foulstone and Taylor, went to London to take the union to court, seeking a ballot and the withdrawal of pickets from the pit.

In September Justice Nicholls heard their case alongside one from North Derbyshire miners. The NUM was not represented. The Yorkshire strike rested on a ballot of January 1981, in which 85.6 per cent had voted to strike against economic closures; Nicholls ruled that it was too remote in time to justify a strike two and a half years later, so the area could not call the strike official. He forbade the union to discipline members who crossed picket lines. Arthur Scargill called it another attempt by an unelected judge to interfere in the union's affairs; he was fined £1,000 and the NUM £200,000, and an order was made to sequester its assets, which had been moved abroad.

People

Foulstone and Taylor, Manton miners and plaintiffs; Justice Nicholls.

Legacy today

The case was one of the working miners' legal actions that brought the union's funds under sequestration. On the picket lines it was bitterly resented: a striking Yorkshire miner's diary of August 1984 records the two Manton men as strike-breakers and insists that a ballot was beside the point.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Two miners from Manton Colliery, in the Yorkshire area but geographically in north Nottinghamshire, argued that the area-level strike in Yorkshire was illegal. (documented fact) ¹
• The two Manton men, Foulstone and Taylor, went to London in August 1984 to take the NUM to court, seeking a ballot and the withdrawal of pickets from Manton. (contemporary account) ²
• Manton's miners had voted overwhelmingly against the strike, but police advised their safety could not be guaranteed. (documented fact) ¹
• Nicholls ruled the 1981 Yorkshire ballot too remote to justify the strike, and forbade the union to discipline members who crossed picket lines. (documented fact) ¹
• Scargill was fined £1,000 and the NUM £200,000, and the union's assets were ordered to be sequestered. (documented fact) ¹
• After nationalisation Manton was placed in the NCB's South Yorkshire region, not the Nottinghamshire one. (documented fact) ³

Mines

• Manton Colliery — Nottinghamshire
  Two Manton Colliery miners brought the 1984 High Court case against the NUM's Yorkshire area strike (Wikipedia's strike article; a striking miner's diary on the Orgreave Truth and Justice site).

Sources

1. (secondary) 1984-1985 United Kingdom miners' strike — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Part Seven: August 1984 — Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
3. (secondary) Manton Colliery — Wikipedia

Record created: 29 September 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026