News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 1st Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

Oct 1947

Length of issue (in feet)

924

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. Bestwood Training Centre
• 2. Open Cast Mining
• 3. Workington Football
• 4. Welsh Debate

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: Bestwood Training Centre in Nottinghamshire
COI Commentary - These lades are going to be miners, but how are they going to learn the job? Should they be sent straight down the pit, where they’ll be in everybody’s way or should they go to college, where they won’t learn anything of the practical side?
At Bestwood Colliery, near Nottingham, they get the best of both worlds. Every boy going into the South Notts mines comes here for ten weeks. The scheme’s been going on for five years, and a year ago they built this schoolhouse.
In the laboratory they learn the scientific side of mining by doing their own experiments. This is one on the effect of after-damp.
In the Handicraft Room carpentry is taught; and the boys also get to know mining equipment by making models.
At the same time regular PT classes teach the importance of keeping fit.
And here’s the really new thing about Bestwood. Under the school buildings there’s a model mine. Layout and equipment are faithful replicas of the real thing. The mine is small in area, but instructors, who’ve spent their lives in the pits, say that it’s the perfect training ground.
The main road to the coalface is only a few yards long, but that’s enough to show what it’s like.
The roof’s made of concrete, so there’s no danger of its falling in; all the same, the boys have to learn to prop it up in professional style.
Here are some lads studying longwall technique in the face galleries.
They also see a coal cutter in action, and try their hands at filling coal on to the face conveyor.
There are some jobs you can’t learn in the best model mine. So for two days a week the boys go and work in a real pit alongside their future workmates.
By the time they leave, they know enough about the job to give them a flying start, and save months of unproductive work in the pit.

Keywords

Education and training; Mining

Written sources

The National Archives INF 6   /387
British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Viewing Copy - bfi screenonline
Hogenkamp, A. P., unpublished DPhil thesis   pxii.
BFI Screenonline synopsis   ID No.1223394

Credits:

Production Co.

Crown Film Unit

Camera

Denny Densham

Camera

Fred Gamage

Director

Graham Wallace

Cutter

Jocelyn Jackson

Cutter

John Legard

Producer

John Taylor

Commentator

Maurice Denham

Director

Max Anderson

Sponsor

Ministry of Fuel and Power

Sound

W. H. May

Camera

William Chaston

This series is held by:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries:
nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk
For commercial/footage reuse enquiries:
footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

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