(c) "Originally made of cork covered by felt or serge-like materials, it is now manufactured in reinforced plastic."
serge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge
(a type of twill fabric)
, where "twill" is "a type of textile weave" rather than material used (can be cotton (as in denim) or wool (as in tweed)).
(d) photo caption: “Face-off between a miners' picket and lines of police in Battle of Orgreave in 1984”
(i) Battle of Orgreave
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Orgreave
(“The Battle of Orgreave is the name given to a confrontation between police and picketing miners at a British Steel coking plant in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, in 1984, during the UK miners' strike. In 1991, South Yorkshire Police were forced to pay out £500,000 to 39 miners who were arrested in the events at the Battle of Orgreave.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) organised a mass picket of Orgreave for 18 June 1984, with the intention of blockading the plant”)
(A) This and the next both talk about a bridge, without explanation. Presumably, the bridge led to the plant.
(B) It was a plant owned by British Steel Corp (BSC)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Steel
("formed in 1967" from the assets of former private companies which had been nationalised under Labour government of Harold Wilson in 1967; "privatised in 1988 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. It merged with the Dutch steel producer Koninklijke Hoogovens to form Corus Group on in 1999 [thus BSC defunct that year]. Corus itself was taken over in March 2007 by the Indian steel operator Tata Steel")
(ii) Grace Shaw, What Happened Next...BBC, Feb 3, 2009
www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/con ... photo_feature.shtml
(“‘then blockades were set up - a police blockade at one side of the bridge and a miners blockade at the other side of the bridge’”)
(A) "I felt it [baton] go [sic, should be ‘went’] past me. I was just missed by the skin of my teeth really.’”
By the Skin of Your Teeth
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/83000.html
* “as small as the hairs on a gnat's bollock”
bollock (n): “(UK, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A testicle”)
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bollock
* In the Web you can also find “to miss sth by a gnat's cock” which refers to a different organ.
* Cf muggeseggele
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muggeseggele
(section 3 English equivalent)
(B) “GS: Did it put you off? LB [Leslie Boulton]: No, it didn't put me off, it made me more determined to go.”
put off
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/put%20off
(C) "At every sliproad between here and Nottingham there were police roadblocks at the end of the sliproads and the police would decide whether you were allowed to go on or not."
For sliproad, see interchange (road)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interchange_(road)
(section 1 Terminology: “A highway ramp (as in exit ramp / off-ramp and entrance ramp / on-ramp) (North American usage) or slip road [‘British’: Oxforddictionaries.com] is a short section of road which allows vehicles to enter or exit a controlled-access highway (freeway or motorway)
(e) “From the 1930s to the 1960s, police in Brighton and Hove wore white helmets in the summer, as they kept the head cooler. This discontinued when they became part of Sussex Police. Like West Yorkshire, Thames Valley Police did away with the custodian helmet almost five years ago. It's up to individual forces whether they want to do the same.”
(i) Brighton and Hove
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_and_Hove
is a city made up of towns of Brighton and Hove, which merged in 1997.
(ii) Thames Valley Police
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Valley_Police
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