HAM

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 8th Year

Issue

Issue No.

12

Date Released

Aug 1955

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1HAM
2. 2ROSE MARIE
3. 3UNDERGROUND
4. 4RIDING HIGH

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

BFI Summary - Radio amateur, Betteshanger
NCB synopsis: Burland Taylor od Betteshanger Colliery is a radio ham and keeps in touch with old friends and makes new ones through his hobby.
NCB Commentary - Miners belong wherever coal is. From Yorkshire’s Brook House Colliery at Beighton one miner who migrated south in 1951 was Burland Taylor, pit maintenance man. He swapped the smoke and grime of Rotherham for the very different atmosphere of Betteshanger in Kent. Like many other miners who have moved their place of work, the change to the sea-washed shores of the Channel hasn’t been a bad one. But not every miner would have Burland Taylor’s resources for keeping in touch with his old comrades. The serial in the garden and the wires strung around the house give a clue to why.
For Burland Taylor is a radio ham. G.3.HWO is his call sign. At Betteshanger Colliery he has already made converts.
He’s coached Geroge Knobbs and Frank O’Connell for their exams and now they both have their own transmitters.
Much of Burland Taylor’s old home news comes from radio men of the Rotherham Club but perhaps his most prized contact is a namesake of his, Tom Taylor, a shotfirer of Atherton near Manchester - G.3 H.R.M. to you.
(Dialogue)
But domestic contacts and talking shop are only incidental to this hobby.
Burland Taylor’s contacts and his friendships range across the world. For his daily work in the cramped confirmed of the pit, Burland Taylor exchanges in his off duty hours a ranging through the wide open spaces in search of his friends.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 4 July 1955.

Keywords

Education and training; Communications

Locations

Kent; England

Written sources

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

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board