PIT JUBILEE

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 9th Year

Issue

Issue No.

3

Date Released

Nov 1955

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1SHOW OF STRENGTH
2. 2PIT JUBILEE
3. 3THE TOWER

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: fiftieth anniversary celebrations at Brodsworth Colliery, Yorks.
NCB Commentary - Closely bound up with the history of Brodsworth Colliery is the Parish Church of Woodlands. It was here on an autumn Sunday morning that the men of Brodsworth went to give thanks for 50 years that have built their colliery into the largest single producer of coal in Britain. There are still at Brodsworth reminders of the early days of 1905.
This crane in the colliery yard is well remembered by Blacksmith Albert Hall as he casts back his mind to the ceremony of cutting the first sod.
One winding engine is 50 years old and over the years Albert Hall’s Blacksmith’s shop hasn’t changed much either.
To mark the 50 years BrodsworthColliery has been in the forging, local people took time off to go gay.
At the Gala Celebrations National Coal Board Chairman Sir Hubert Houldsworth and Lady Houldsworth assited in crowning Brodsworth’s Coal Queen, Joan Bunting. The Queen and her retinue preside over festivities embracing pioneers of Brodworth’s past and the living symbols of her future.
As a gala it was an impressive show but that was to be expected from a colliery which has spent half a century setting up output records only to knock them down again year after year.
Today Brodsworth is embarking on a reconstruction programme designed to keep her in the forefront of the nation’s great coal-producting units.
The celebrations mark the pride of local people in their enterprise and skill. To Sid Phillips band the younger element relax before the hard tasks of tomorrow press in once more on their working lives.
A few weeks after the Jubilee celebrations up came Brodsworth’s millionth ton of 1955, promising a final output for the year to match 1954’s record figures. Fifty years yound, Brodsworth has an increasing contribution to make to the prosperity of the nation.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded on 26 November 1955.

Keywords

Commemorations; Celebrations and festivals; Mining

Locations

Yorkshire; England

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