A NEW exhibition at the Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum will reveal the story of "an English Civil War" of the last century, the Miners' Strike of 1984.

The name of the exhibition will be "The Battle of Orgreave" and it will run at the Foregate Street venue from September 17 to November 26.

A spokesman said: "This exhibition brings an important and challenging artwork to Worcester, by one of the most significant artists of this generation.

"Jeremy Deller compares the Miner’s Strike to the English Civil War of the seventeenth century.

Mr Deller said: "“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the strike, like a civil war, had a traumatically divisive effect at all levels of life in the UK. Families were torn apart because of divided loyalties, the union movement was split on its willingness to support the National Union of Mineworkers; in all but name it became an ideological and industrial battle between the two sections of British society.”

On June 18, 1984, the area around the Orgreave coking plant was the site of one of the strike’s most violent clashes.

To help Mr Deller produce artwork on the theme, the clash was actually re-created.

The spokesman said: "More than 800 people participated in the event, including former miners and former policemen. Other participants were drawn from Civil War societies who were more used to re-enacting fights like the 1651 Battle of Worcester."

The exhibition will include a documentary film on loan from The Tate, and also artefacts images and audio recordings from the artist's own archive of research materials, which helped with the reenactment of the clash at Orgreave.