PERSONAL CALL: 4. WE VISIT COPPICe

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 5th Year

Issue

Issue No.

10

Date Released

Jun 1952

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1OLYMPIC POSSIBLE
2. 2TOM HILL
3. 3PERSONAL CALL: 4. WE VISIT COPPICe

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 3

Section Title

PERSONAL CALL

Summary

BFI synopsis: underground mechanisation at Coppice Colliery, with mechanical cutters and loaders at work, with John Slater.
NCB Commentary - This month my wanderings took me up to the Cannock field, to Coppice Colliery, whose output records for a small pit have been astonishing the experts.
As we ducked under a ventilation trunk in one of the main roadways underground in the Bottom Robins seam I asked manager Arthur Cox how they did it. Take a look round, he said, and you’ll see some of the answer right here. It looked a bit like Piccadilly Circus in the rush hour to me; an arcwall coal cutter nosing up the roadway to where a group of men were timbering, dead straight roads, and a Joy loader clanking off to another heading on its caterpillar tracks.
And here’s come more of the answer, on the plan. Parallel main roads with intersecting crossings. It’s the panel system of mining. Is it weren’t for the risk of subsidence on the surface, they could get out nearly one hundred % of the coal.
Arthur and I were at the end of the heading just as Stan Gough took down a temporary support. And there in front of mem with the trace of the last vertical cut made, was the face - 5 ft. odd high and 15 wide. They leave 2 foot of coal to support the roof and - blimey, here’s the coal cutter. If you hang about down here, you’re in everybody’s way. And I don’t want to get in the way of this - 7 3/4 tons of AB cutter. Ray Hawkins and Bert Barber steered her in and got cracking straight away undercutting the face to a depth of 7 feet.
That didn’t take long. When I’d recovered from the shock, there was Harry Wyles drilling out the last shothole. Tommy Hooper and Arthur showed me a Cardox charge: they use a lot of them here because it’s a gassy pit and Cardox is a fire extinguisher as well as an explosive.
The firing wires are laid on as the heading advances, just like a telephone extension. Tommy made a final check for gas, then it was time for all of us to retire round the corner. I won’t pretend I got used to all this shotfiring - with me, it was fingers in ears and -
Well, there’s another seven foot of coal come down. As soon as Tommy had tested for gas again it was O. K. for me to take a closer look at the damage. But they won’t leave you alone for a minute at Coppice - this one’s the Joy loader, five tons of mechanical gorilla.
Down goes the coal, straight on to a scraper conveyor on the floor that extends to keep up with the machine. The Joy won’t take ten minutes to clean up that little lot. And on the way out, there were the timberers again, bringing up a fresh steel beam from where the Joy loader had left it.
Well, that’s that, said Arthur: you’ve seen the whole cycle. Mind that cutter! You want some facts and figures? Out put per manshift on the face, 330 hundreweight. Overall, for the whole pit, it’s 55, and that’s pretty high. There’s 2,000 tons a week coming out of this panel, and we’ve three others working besides. I reckoned he wouldn’t miss it if I pinched some, but this isn’t house coal - it’s industrial stuff, and I suppose they need it more than I do.
Well, that’s that, said Arthur: you’ve seen the whole cycle. Mind that cutter! You want some facts and figures? Out put per manshift on the face, 330 hundredweight. Overall, for the whole pit, it’s 55, and that’s pretty high. There’s 2,000 tons a week coming out of this panel, and we’ve three others working besides. I reckoned he wouldn’t miss it if I pinched some, but this isn’t house coal - it’s industrial stuff, and I suppise they need it more than I do.

Researcher Comments

BFI sources suggest that this story was filmed from the 27th to the 30th April 1952. The budget was £233 5d. Commentary recorded 6 May 1952.

Keywords

Mining; Engineering

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:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Director

Francis Gysin

Commentator

John Slater

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Camera

Phil Law

Support services

Stanley Goulder

Camera

Wolfgang Suschitzky