News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Review 32nd Year

Issue

Issue No.

5

Date Released

Jan 1979

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. WEST BY NORTH WEST

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

NCB Summary - About the expanding future of the Coal Board’s Western region.
NCB synopsis: Black and white still of industrial area - Stoke on Trent showing smoking chimneys and factories. Pan left to right across photograph. MS Chimney belching smoke. Pan left to right to another chimney. Montage of original Mining Review black and white material - smoky chimney and old headstack wheel; view of pottery kilns; photograph of kilns and chimneys. LS over industrial area showing smoky chimneys and kilns. Gladstone Museum at Longton. View up kiln chimney pan right to other kilns and down to yard. Several people emerge from building to wander around yard. B&W photograph of pottery kilns and associated buildings. Gladstone Museum event in order to raise funds for the restoration of the kilns by the museum: CS profile of grey horse with old style Solid Fuel Advisory Service delivery cart in the background. MS NoSle being put on horse; bags of coal being loaded onto SFAS cart. SFAS coal delivery cart being pulled along by two horses. Two men and one girl aboard cart; MCS group of photographers taking pictures of the event, pan right to show old SFAS delivery cart approaching; B&W photograph of kiln yard with horses and cart present; CS horses’ hoofs; the horse pulling the cart; tilt up to show horses, one grey, other darker; MLS two horses and the cart; CS Staffordshire coal queen standing between the two horses; view looking out from inside archway towards cathedral, SFAS cart in fg with coal sacks being unloaded; man wheeling wheelbarrow and dumping coal in pile; MS group of spectators; another shot of man moving coal; CS coal being dumped; CS man describing pottery making to group of visitors at the museum; CS pottery being made - the potter is a girl; MS spectators; completed pots being placed in a row; MS variety of completed items of pottery displayed on stand. Tilt up to show pots - all shapes and sizes; CS old man shovelling coal onto kiln boiler; CS children watching; MS flames in boiler of kiln; zoom out from thick smoke to reveal kiln chimney smoking; MCS pottery figures displayed in museum; CS same - a lion and a sheep; CS beautiful tiles. Review of the coal industry in the area; MS name and coat of arms of "National Coal Board Staffordshire House"; zoom out to show whole building, with car driving past; CS map of England and Wales - the North West and Western region including Staffordshire marked out; Zoom in to show location of Haig Colliery, tilt down to show other colliery locations in the Lancashire and Staffordshire regions; LS over industrial area, showing stockyards and stock piles of coal; tilt up to field with river in distance and good train passing right to left; MS coal lorry (filled with coal) leaving colliery; pan right to left with it to reveal modern colliery headstacks and other colliery buildings; Bold Colliery (which supplied coal to nearby power station) works bus arriving at the colliery (from Review 26th year No 8); notice on wall - "Hem Heath Colliery"; pan right to left to reveal one headstack in distance, car leaves colliery grounds; LS glass-fronted part of colliery building - part of headstack visible in bg; pan left to right to reveal another modern headstack, grass in fg; Florence Colliery, CS notice board "Florence Colliery"; pan right to left towards LS colliery site - heasdstacks and modern colliery buildings; MS miners sitting in man-riding train at top of drift; other mines get on; CS mines as train moves off down slope. (Hem Heath and Florence are to be amalgamated and developed); CS notice board "Holditch Colliery", colliery headstack to right, car leaving the colliery, smoky atmosphere (Holditch is a large producer of methane gas and one of the tidies in Britain); LS over colliery site showing old-style headstack wheel; surface conveyors - smoky chimneys; pan right to left across site; CS notice "methane pumps", "No Smoking", zoom out to show men outside pump house at colliery; LS through pipe to reveal two oldish-style headstacks; pan left to right to show LS pumping station; CS pipes at colliery - methane pumping; MLS pipes, pan left to right along pipe in CS; shots of pipes and other apparatus inside pumping house; the methane is used by a brickworks a few miles away view of brickworks - various shots inside factory; storeyard, fork lift truck busy loading bricks onto lorries for transporting to customer; MS notice board "Silverdale Colliery -Western Area" zoom out to show coal tip in distance and conveyor leading to it; LS over drift excavations at colliery; two workmen erecting scaffolding at entrance to drift; LS large open tank of water at colliery - headstacks to the right in bg; MS over tank of water; mine water is recycled - chemicals lime and ferric oxide are extracted for eventual disposal; mine water being re-cycled - chemicals extracted; mine water being re-cycled; chemicals extracted; CU man’s hands in dirty water in tank - filling test tube with sample; the water is tipped into another container for further inspection (Silverdale it o be expanded; the re-cycled and cleaned water finds its way into North Staffordshire’s wateways). Wallpaper factory near Blackburn relies on coal for power. LS over modern building "Graham and Brown" lettering on side of building; pan down to glass-fronted building; CS apparatus coal delivery area; coal being tipped from back of lorry into underground storage area; interior boiler room; three large coal0-fired industrial boilers can be seen; man comes into inspect gauges; zoom in CS ginger and white cat washing itself on top of boiler; interior showroom of wallpaper factory; pan right to left to show wallpaper production; CS various patterned wallpapers on conveyors and finished rolls packed and stacked. Forest Park a reclaimed colliery site. CU notice "Central Forest Park" zoom out to show LS landscaped slag heaped (grassed) with cars parked near lake; LS through s[poke of wheel showing couple walking in park; LS over park land with landscaped slag heaps and houses in distance; two men walking towards lake (the park is an open landscape and not and urban cultivated park. Chatterley Whitfield Colliery to be closed and turned into a museum. CS notice "national Cola Board Western Area Chatterley Whitfield Colliery"; pan left to right to LS colliery, featuring two oldish-style headstack wheels and chimney (not smoking); pan up from dirty colliery yard to LS old buildings and headstack wheel; another shot of part of the colliery showing derelict conditions; LS very old and derelict colliery buildings including; Coal industry ahs an expanding further and surveys continue. LS across grassy fields with old farm track crossing middle of fields; pan left to right across fields showing two surveyors at work with theodolite and map; CS surveyors; CS detail on map; pan from surveyors to green fields; MS man playing bowls; zoom out to show colliery bowling green with two modern headstacks in distance.

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Films on Coal Catalogue   1979, p.40 Used for synopsis
The British National Film Catalogue   Vol.17 1979, p.111

Credits:

Cutter

Deh-ta Hsiung

Commentator

Francis Gysin

Camera

Fred Gamage

Director

Gerard Bryant

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit

Producer

Robert Kruger