THE SOMERSET COALFIELD
Series
- Series Name
- Mining Review 17th Year
Issue
Story
- Story No. within this Issue
- 1 / 1
- Summary
- BFI synopsis: A single story issue on the Somerset coalfield, for its size (comprising five pits) the most highly mechanised in England. Local people give their views.
NCB Commentary - 1. North-East Somerset has been a mining district for something like 2000 years. The Romans mined lead from the Mendip Hills, and lead was still being won in the 19th Century.
Coal was dug around Redstock and Midsomer Norton in the 14th Century. The Industrial Revolution turned the district into a predominantly coalmining area.
The Somerset Coal-Canal had been built before 1800. So barges could carry coal right into the Thames Valley. The railway didn’t take over until a 100 years later.
2. But the men who lived around Norton-Radstock were still ex-miners and the sons of miners, and the Area was far from depressed.
During the last fifteen years, in fact, this has quietly become something of a boom area.
3. In fact, for it’s size, the Somerset Coalfield is the most highly mechanised group in Britain - 90% of the coal being cut and loaded by machinery.
4. The challenge is there to the Coal Board - to the Somerset miners, to the incomers. Judging by what has happened so far, they will win this round too, and they’ll play their part in the future of this booming Area of North East Somerset. - Keywords
- Mining
- Locations
- England; Somerset
- Written sources
- British Film Institute Databases Used for synopsis
The British National Film Catalogue Vol.2 1964, p.55
The National Archives COAL 32 /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963
- Credits:
-
- Producer
- John Reid
- Commentator
- John Slater
- Sponsor
- National Coal Board
- Production Co.
- National Coal Board Film Unit
- Cutter
- Robert Vas