COMBINED OPERATIONS

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 8th Year

Issue

Issue No.

1

Date Released

Sep 1954

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1COMBINED OPERATIONS
2. 2BOWman
3. 3BURNING BRIGHT
4. 4PLOUGHING FAST

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: Old colliery rebuilt - rebuilding Mardy colliery, Rhondda Valley. Progress to date of this #4,000,000 project. Includes the underground tunnel between Mardy and Bwllfa Colliery were best dry steam coal is found.
NCB Commentary - Here is a report on a project which will bring new life to an entire Welsh Valley. The Colliery at Mardy, closed in 1940, is being rebuilt, using the old shafts to tap the 120 million tons of coal that lie between the Rhondda Fach and the Cwmdare.
It was in February 1949 that this £4,000,000 project was put in hand. To-day the surface progress at Mardy is reshaping the upper limit of the Rhondda Fach Valley.
Underground a three thousand yard tunnel will link Mardy with Bwllfs Colliery, two-and-a-half miles west of Aberdare. Beneath this twisting mountain highway is an underground road 15 ft. wide and 11 ft. high.
The shafts at Bwllfs Pit will bring men from Cwmdare valley to work with the Mardy miners. There will be new work for men who to-day are at pits with only a few years life to run.
There is a lot of best dry-steam coal down here, waiting to be won by Welsh brains and hands.

Researcher Comments

According to bfi records, this story was filmed on the 4th and 5th of June 1954 at a cost of £169. Commentary recorded 5 August 1954.

Keywords

Buildings and structures; Mining

Locations

Wales

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for Synopsis
Film User   Vol.9 No.109, November 1955, p570.
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Camera

Kenneth Reeves

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Director

Stanley Goulder

Camera

Wolfgang Suschitzky