Open Cast Mining

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

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: opencast mining for coal
COI Commentary - It’s Easter in Workington, on the Cumberland Coast, and everyone is waiting for the start of the historic annual football match between the Uppies and the Downies. The kick-off is at six.
These are the miners and sailors of Workington. They’re known as the Uppies and Downies, for originally, the miners came from the upper part of the town, and the sailors down by the docks.
It’s an energetic game to play, yet easy to learn, for there are no rules, no referees and no limit to the numbers who take part.
Anyone can join in! And sometimes hundreds do.
The Uppies try to get the ball home into the grounds of Workington Hall, up in the town, while the Downies have as their goal, a capstan on the dock side ... and these goals are two miles apart.
For nearly two hundred years the game has been played like this, at Easter, yet nobody’s perfectly sure how it originally started.
It’s certainly a boisterous tussle and may last an hour or continue well into the night.
No one is really safe when this game is played - not even the spectators, for the struggle ebbs and flows through the streets and rivers and back gardens. The police put in an appearance just as a matter of form.
And when its all over, those of the winning side who aren’t in hospital have the right to parade the town, with the man who scored the goal, collecting free drinks in the pubs.
And they certainly deserve it.

Keywords

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Hogenkamp, A. P., unpublished DPhil thesis   pxii.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.1223396

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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