Battle of Saltley Gate

The Battle of Saltley Gate is the name given to a confrontation between police, picketing miners and local factory workers at the West Midlands Gas Board coking works in Saltley during the UK miners' strike (1972).

The Saltley coke works were closed. The police had managed to keep them open during the previous week of picketing by members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

On 10 February 1972, the gates of the coke works were closed, after about 10,000 members of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW) marched from local factories and joined the picket.