1984 in England

Events from the year 1984 in England.

Incumbents[]

• Monarch – Elizabeth II^[1]
• Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)^[2]

Events[]

March[]

• 23 March – Hilda Murrell, 78-year-old rose grower and anti-nuclear campaigner, is found dead near her home in Shropshire, five days after being reported missing. West Mercia Police launch a murder investigation.
• 27 March – Starlight Express opens at Apollo Victoria Theatre in London.

April[]

• 2 April – Youth gangs run riot in Wolverhampton, looting from shops.^[3]
• 4 April – Peace protesters evicted from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.^[4]
• 17 April – WPC Yvonne Fletcher is shot and killed by a secluded gunman during a siege outside the Libyan Embassy in London in the event known as the 1984 Libyan Embassy Siege. 11 other people are also shot but survive.^[5]

May[]

• 2 May – The Liverpool International Garden Festival opens in Liverpool.
• 8 May – The Thames Barrier, designed to protect London from floods, is opened by The Queen.
• 12 May – Liverpool F.C. secure a third consecutive league title and the 15th in the club's history, despite being held to a 0–0 draw away at Notts County.
• 19 May – Everton win the FA Cup, their first major trophy for 14 years, with a 2–0 win over Watford in the final at Wembley Stadium. The goals are scored by Andy Gray and Graham Sharp. Everton's last FA Cup triumph came in 1966, and they have now won the trophy four times.^[6]
• 29 May – Fighting at Orgreave colliery between police and striking miners leaves 64 injured.^[7]
• 30 May
  • The Queen officially opens a new terminal at Birmingham International Airport. The terminal has been in use since the start of last month, replacing the original terminal that opened in 1939.^[8]
  • Liverpool win the European Cup for the fourth time with a penalty shoot-out victory over AS Roma of Italyafter a 1–1 draw in the final at Olympic Stadium in Rome. Liverpool, who have also won the Football League First Division and Football League Cup this season, are the first English club to win three major trophies in the same season.^[9]

June[]

• 1 June – Seven year old British boy Mark Tildesley disappears from his home in Wokingham, Berkshire after visiting a local fairground after being abducted and murdered by a paedophile group led by ring leader Sidney Cooke, his body has never been found.^[10][11]
• 7 June – 120 people are arrested when fighting breaks out outside the Houses of Parliament during a mass lobby by striking miners.
• 15 June – A miner picketing a Yorkshire power station is killed by a lorry.
• 18 June – Battle of Orgreave confrontation between picketing miners and police.
• 19 June – Austin Rover launches the Rover 200 saloon, the replacement for the Triumph Acclaim, which means the end of the Triumph brand after 61 years. Like its predecessor, the new car is the result of a venture with Honda.
• 22 June – The inaugural flight of the first Virgin Atlantic plane takes place.^[12]
• 29 June – Control of London Transport is removed from the Greater London Council and transferred to London Regional Transport (reporting to the Secretary of State for Transport) under terms of the London Regional Transport Act 1984.^[13]

July[]

• 6 July
  • David Jenkins consecrated as Bishop of Durham, despite strong objections from conservative Christians.^[7]
  • Murder of Isabel Schwarz, a psychiatric social worker, in South London.
• 9 July – A fire in the roof of York Minster, probably caused by an electrical storm, causes extensive damage which is expected to cost millions of pounds to repair.^[14]

August[]

• 2 August – A Surrey business man wins a case in the European Court of Human Rights over illegal phone tapping by the police.^[15]

September[]

• 7 September – An outbreak of food poisoning in two Yorkshire hospitals has so far claimed 22 lives in the space of two weeks.^[16]
• 15–16 September – Bones believed to be those of St Edward the Martyr (King of England, 975–978) are enshrined in the Church of St. Edward the Martyr, Brookwood, Surrey.^[17]
• 24 September – Four pupils and their teacher die and a further six pupils are injured when a roll of steel from a lorry crushes their minibus near Stuart Bathurst RC High School in Wednesbury, West Midlands.^[18]

October[]

• 1 October – David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, launches an attack on Margaret Thatcher's social policies. The Durham area has been particularly hard hit by factory and mine closures since her election as Prime Minister five years ago.
• 3 October – Plans to expand the Urban Enterprise Zone in Dudley, West Midlands, are approved; developers Don and Roy Richardson get the go-ahead to build a retail park and shopping mall on the main part of the site. The first tenants will move to the site next year and the development is expected in the next 18 months, with scope for further service sector developments in the future.^[19]
• 5 October – Police in Essex make the largest cannabis seizure in British criminal history when a multimillion-pound stash of the drug is found on a schooner moored on the River Crouch near North Fambridge village.^[20]
• 12 October – The Provisional Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate the Conservative cabinet in the Brighton hotel bombing. Margaret Thatcher escapes unharmed, but MP Anthony Berry and four other people are killed, whilst Norman Tebbit is trapped among the rubble and his wife Margaret is seriously injured.^[21]

November[]

• 5 November – 800 miners end their strike and return to work.
• 15 November – The General Synod of the Church of England support the ordination of women as deacons, but not as full priests.^[7]
• 23 November – The Oxford Circus fire traps around 1,000 passengers on the London Underground but no-one is killed.^[22]

December[]

• 12 December – Bucks Fizz, the highly successful pop group, are involved in a road accident near Newcastle upon Tyne when their tour bus crashes in icy road conditions after a concert. Bobby Gee, Cheryl Baker and Jay Astonescape with relatively minor injuries, but Mike Nolan is in a serious condition.^[23]
• 31 December – Rick Allen, drummer of Def Leppard, loses his left arm in a car accident on the A57 road at Snake Pass.

Undated[]

• Chatham Dockyard in Medway is closed after being used a shipbuilding yard for over 400 years since the reign of Henry VIII.
• Non-diocesan Bishop at Lambeth first appointed within the Church of England.

References[]