DEEP WATERS

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 8th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

Mar 1955

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1LAND OF HIS FATHERS
2. 2SHEARER LOADER
3. 3SANDS OF DEE
4. 4DEEP WATERS

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: Underground canals draining Lancashire pits.
NCB Commentary - There’s no more coal coming out of Ellesmere Pit, near Manchester. To-day Ellesmere is a pumping station.
200 years ago the ingenious Duke of Bridgwater, whose name still lives in the district, worked out a system of underground canals to bring coal by water from his many collieries.
The canals are still there to-day. One section runs under the Area H.Q. at Walkden.
At Ellesmere colliery three men go underground regularly to set out, believe it or not, for a boat trip. Not exactly a pleasure cruise, but necessary for maintenance and inspection.
Hundreds of feet below the ground they come into a vast man-made cavern and step into one of the flat-bottomed boats that are used on the waterways, boats that are smaller editions of the barges used by 18th century miners. The canals were driven through solid rock and the 200 year old brickwork arches are a testimony of the workmanship that was put into them.
A local man, Jimmy Stow, and two Yugo-Slavian miners, Gliso and Nene Vujkovich, form a three-man inspection team. The tunnels are so low that they have to lie on their backs and walk on the ceiling just as Bridgewater’s miners did over 150 years ago. If the water level is below this marker post, the boats won’t travel. If the post is covered then there wouldn’t be room between the water and the roof.
In the old days a man would lie on his back for hours, leg-weary, walking upside down on rock to get the coal through stretches of Canal that extended 15 miles. The iron rings on the roof were for men to haul boats over the sections by rope or chain. Although the coal winding days of the canal system are over, they still have an essential importance to the collieries around Manchester.
Every day over a million gallons of water is pumped into the canals to drain off the present day workings at the big collieries nearby. When the inspection team comes out into daylight once more at Worsley, they’ll have satisfied themselves that all’s well. At Worsley the old canal joins up with one still in use for coal traffic. Here too the Coal Board has a boatyard and the surface canal systme is as busy as it ever has been.
Back into the present day from their trip into the 18th century, three tired and dirty men set off to make their report.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 7 February 1955.

Keywords

Buildings and structures; Industry and manufacture; Mining

Locations

England; Lancashire

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /3 Scripts for Mining Review, 1949-1956

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board