A woman who baked 11,500 pastries for striking miners said she feels a weight has been lifted off her shoulders with Margaret Thatcher's death.
Jane Oughton, 68, of Hough Lane, began baking lemon and jam tarts, bakewells and mince pies after the start of the miners' strike in 1984 to 'do her bit' as both her father and brother were miners.
Jane worked as a nurse in a care home at the time and baked the treats three times a week, initially dropping them off at the food kitchen in the Civic, Barnsley.
Shortly afterwards, however, she met three women collecting for Houghton Main strikers who then picked them up from her home three times a week for the rest of the strike.
Following the closure of the pit, she was presented with a deputy's lamp which she donated to the Lamproom Theatre after they appealed for old lamps.
"It's one of the proudest things I've ever done in my life," Jane said. "I had a good job and felt I could afford to do that and help out and my twin sister, who lived in North Carolina, used to send money over to help the strikers."
She added she felt Margaret Thatcher feared the NUM and could not forgive her for the aftermath of the strike in areas like Wombwell.
She said: "I know she was ill when she died and had dementia but what she did to communities like Wombwell was terrible.
"Watching the footage of Cortonwood on the news this week brought it all back for me and it was very upsetting. But I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders."
