Arrest of man as his wife pleads for mercy during Miners' Strike

A former miner looks bewildered as he is needlessly strong-armed through his village by burly police officers, his desperate wife pleading for mercy.

Concerned onlookers watch helplessly as he is marched, arms outstretched, towards a riot van under arrest.

Clearly distressed, but still trying to be stoic, his clothes become dishevelled, anguish etched on the face of his beloved.

His crime?

Trying to go home after working at his allotment garden.

This was Easington during the Miners’ Strike.

The enduring image of Jossy and Dot Smith epitomises the unprecedented way ordinary people were victimised and humiliated as police attempted to assert control of the increasingly bitter industrial dispute.

The couple, who were in their 50s, had both worked at Easington Colliery, Jossy at the coalface before suffering a back injury, and Dot in the canteen.

They were retired and lived in Alma Street with two of their five children and were going about their business when Jossy was stopped by officers who had flooded the village to police the picket lines.

His son Ray, who was a striking miner at the time, said: “He had been up the garden and the police caught him.

“He was trying to go home and they would not let him.

“My dad being my dad wanted to go home regardless so they arrested him.

“Someone told me Mam about it and she ran up shouting: ‘Leave him alone, he is only trying to go home’.

“The police were just bullies. You could not go outside your own front door if the police were there. That was the way it was back then.”

Jossy, who died in 2016, some four years after Dot, was never charged and was allowed to go following an outcry by villagers.

Ray said: “The lads around the area were going absolutely daft.

“Everyone knew me Dad and they knew he wasn’t working. People stood up for him, that was what the community did in them days.  

“The police did come up and apologise later. I think he even got a written apology.

“He was not bitter about it. That is what people were like. They just took it on the chin and got on with it.”

The images were captured by photographer Keith Pattison who spent eight months documenting the dispute in Easington.

Jossy is stopped by police as he makes his way home to Alma Street (Image: Contributor)

He is marched through the street in Easington (Image: Contributor)

His wife Dot tries to stop police from taking him away (Image: Contributor)

Dot looks for help as police insist on taking Jossy (Image: Contributor)

Dot begs for mercy for her husband (Image: Contributor)

She explains what is happening to another villager (Image: Contributor)

Jossy sits in the police van as Dot looks on (Image: Contributor)Get more from The Northern Echo and stay informed with subscription now available on special offer for two months for just £2. Click here 

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Keith, now 73, said: “It was getting to the end of the strike.

“It had become a war of attrition and every lunchtime people were paraded through the street just to have their noses rubbed in it

“There was a bit of friction and Jossy, who was retired and disabled, was getting arrested for no apparent reason.

“Handily I just happened to be there with a camera. It was a bit of a gift really. 

“I remember I took the roll of film out and gave it to a woman from the village for safekeeping.

“She went and put it in a stocking drawer so the police could not get their hands on it.”