MINK

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 8th Year

Issue

Issue No.

4

Date Released

Dec 1954

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1POLISH VISIT
2. 2DOSCO
3. 3NEW LINE
4. 4MINK

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: Somerset miner raises mink.
NCB Commentary - At Norton Hill Colliery, Somerset, works Randolph Bell, a fitter.
Randolph is a man of many parts. His hobby is one of the most unusual that we have come across in Mining Review. Here’s a hint - he keeps pets. But what are they? They keep everyone guessing and even the kids can’t make out what’s in the cages in the back garden.
Round the corner, here’s a clue; what they eat. Mrs. Bell, Radolph’s mother, comes home with a bucket full of fish. And who’s this? Why, Mr. Small, the butcher, with one bucket of liver, and no! it can’t be true - one bucket of blood!
Well, here they are, they call them minks. Randolph has minks like some people have mice. Two years ago he bought six for breeding, just as an experiment, but now they’ve grown to 42, and he looks like having to find larger premises.
They’re valuable animals and they need carefully weighed and measured quanitities of food to keep them in top condition.
Their diet includes fish, liver, yeast, vegetables and cod liver oil, all mixed together and dished up once a day. Randolph’s sister Dorothy gives a hand at feeding time. They move like quick-silver and never faster than when dinner is served.
Here’s the fur of one mink. It takes about 80 to make up a girl’s - second to diamonds - best friend, and to get the right eighty you may have to sort through 300.
Here’s a specimen of the finished article. Lovely, isn’t it, but don’t ask us how she got it. Christmas comes but once a year, so - how about it, boys?

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 8 November 1954.

Keywords

Mining; Fashion and costume; Animal husbandry; Animals

Locations

England; Somerset

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

Sponsor

National Coal Board