CLAYPIT

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 9th Year

Issue

Issue No.

9

Date Released

May 1956

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1CLAYPIT
2. 2LOTHIANS
3. 3BARN DANCE

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: a drift mine at Newton in Scotland supplies a new NCB brickworks with clay
NCB Commentary - Thousands of years ago the course of the river Clyde spread across land where today there is fertile soil - and underneath - clay.
At Newton, in the shadow of the Blantyreferme collieries the Coal Board has sunk a drift mine where they win this clay underground. Through this mine entry in the fields, miners are walking back thousands of years.
At the face where they drill and stem before shot firing it’s wet work.
The clay, which is quite hard, is like shale to look at but really it’s a form of Terracotta.
While the men wait for the charge to be exploded, water drips down the arches and streams along the roadway.
Up go the laden tubs to the surface, but the drift mine is only part of the undertaking.
Next door is a brand new Brickworks. Brickmaking is a little known but profitably important offshoot of the mining industry. The Coal Board is the 2nd largest producer of bricks in Britain.
Inside the plant the first process is the crushing of the clay. 5-ton ollers 6-ft. high grind the clay to a smooth powder under their chilled iron rings.
In a fine dust the powdered clay cascades on to the next process, mixing with water into a doughy mixture.
In the brickmaking machines damp clay is moulded into its familiar shape - at 45 bricks a minute.
Still the dark Grey colour of the natural clay the raw bricks go on into the kilns.
Coal from the Blantyreferme pits heats the ovens to over 1,000 degrees centigrade.
Underneath these inspection ports, thousands of bricks are going through their three weeks’ baking.
The process is continuous. From kilns which have cooled down finished bricks roll off to waiting transport.
The new plant can produce 27,000 bricks an hour, and as it works up to full out-put, will soon hit its target of 100,000 high grade engineering bricks each week.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 9th April 1956.

Keywords

Industry and manufacture; Mining; Fuels; Energy resources

Locations

Scotland; Newton

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.11 No.123 January 1957, p29.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board