UNDER THE BORDER

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

5

Date Released

Jan 1952

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1SORTING OFFICE
2. 2HIGH TENSION
3. 3UNDER THE BORDER
4. 4TEE BOY

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 4

Summary

NoS Summary - Blackhill colliery, the most northerly in England.
BFI synopsis: Shows the colliery (near Berwick on Tweed) the retail delivery service of the colliery which supplies coal to the farmers of the Cheviots and the works bus service.
NCB Colliery - At the foot of the Cheviots, lonely in the middle of fields and farmland is the most northerly colliery in England - Blackhill, near Berwick on Tweed and only a few miles from the Scots border.
It’s not a big part - only 200 men work here - and it’s not a deep pit - the shaft only goes down 300 feet - but it’s a pit where things go with a swing. You can see for yourself that they’re turning out the coal at Blackhill.
They’ve got proud records here. They’ve never lost a day’s production through industrial disputes at Blackhill, and many of the men remember the days in the 30’s when to stop the pit closing the miners raised £3,000 to run the pit for themselves. That was the old colliery at nearby Soremerston.
And even their coal’s a bit unusual. Some of this will be going to help make five pound notes at Chirnside paper mills. And this load, already in bags, must be unique. For at Blackhill they run their own retail delivery service, to supply farmers and villages scattered high in the Cheviots and the border country. They’ve got a thousand customers in the hills and dales, and a fleet of 12 trucks to serve them all. A driver and his mate may make 10 visits like this in a day.
Back at the pit it’s nearing shift changeover time. And time for another of Blackhill’s innovations; the colliery runs its own bus service, to pick up miners from Soremerston, five miles away, and from Berwick. There isn’t any other public transport, so the pit bus service is really indispensable.
They may seem isolated, these Blackhill folk, but there’s a lot going on here, much that would impress a visitor in a pit ten times the size. Down they go, the afternoon shift, to do their bit towards the 250 ton daily output, from under the fields and hill of the Border.

Researcher Comments

Commentary 4 December 1951.

Keywords

Mining

Locations

England; Northumberland; Berwick-upon-Tweed

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for Synopsis
National Film Archive Catalogue
Film User   Vol.6 No.74 December 1952, p651.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board