FIELD OF COAL

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

9

Date Released

May 1952

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1ROYAL VISIT
2. 2FIELD OF COAL
3. 3CROOK DRAWS
4. 4SCOOP

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: opencast mining near Stafford and restoring farm land after opencast mining.
NCB Commentary - On April 1st the National Coal Board took over responsibility for all opencast coal winning in Britain. What’s the story behind the 11 million tons of opencast coal won last year?
In the battle for coal many farmers have been called on to sacrifice their land. Farmer Snape will be compensated for loss while the land is out of use, but all the same he’s worried about the future, remembering some of the ruined land of the past. But he needn’t be. This is what happens today.
First, the precious topsoil, the world’s wealth, is scraped off and piled until it can be replaced to feed next year’s store cattle.
Then the draglines slice into the subsoil - the overburden, as it’s called - and clear it away until 80 feet below they strike COAL.
Now the opencast workers move in.
Sunshine miners, they call them, but day and night they’ll tear away at the seam of coal, sight feet thick here. For every ton they get, fuel for the power stations and the boilers of industry, they’ll have had to shift 15 tons of soil, sand and clay.
The earth’s oil wins the earth’s coal, and sends it on its way to the screening plants and off to the consumers.
But the land is vital, too, and when the coal has been taken out millions of tons of overburden and topsoil must be replaced. The machines bite up the good earth and carry it back to bring life to the fields again. For this thin layer of soil, all over the world, is all man has to rely on for his food.
But the subsoil settles unevenly seomtimes, and new drains have to be cut to carry off the rains.
Only 43,000 acres in Britain are under opencast, out of 45 MILLION acres of farmland. And of that, 19,000 are being restored. Everything the machine can so IS done to restore them, but now it’s up to Farmer Snape again, for
"If you’ll only look and see I think you will agree That the Farmer is the man who feeds us all".

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was inspired by an article in Picture Post on the 11th February 1950. It was filmed from the 12th to the 14th March 1953. Commentary recorded 7 April 1952.

Keywords

Environment; Agriculture; Mining

Locations

England; Staffordshire

Written sources

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

Credits:

Camera

Bill Cheesman

Camera

Charles Wilford Smith

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Director

J. D. Chambers

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Support services

Stanley Goulder

Camera

Wolfgang Suschitzky