AREA PROFILE: ST HELENs AREA

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 10th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

Mar 1957

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1AREA PROFILE: ST HELENs AREA
2. 2CHECKPOINT
3. 3TEN YEARS ON: Reconstruction

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 3

Section Title

AREA PROFILE

Summary

BFI synopsis: Lancashire coal mines; Colliery developments in the St. Helens area
NCB Commentary - The roots of Lancashire’s prosperity go back over a century - when the cotton mills were clicking into production and the wooden headstocks of the collieries were creaking and groaning under the load of feeding the new industries of the day.
For the women picking coal the times spelt toil - toil too for their men-folk scrabbling for coal down below. Above and below the surface the clogs and boots tapped out a rhythm of dust and sweated labour.
Today the face of the St. Helens Area is a new one. Output is high but hard work gets its reward. The key to success, as elsewhere, has been mechanisation. Of last year’s total area production, 45% was out and loaded by machine.
10 miles long and 4 miles wide, No. 3 is a cresent shaped area. It strikes across country from Cronton in the South-west to Somersales in the North-east, near Wigan.
As much as anything, large scale reconstruction has completed the mechanisation in making No. 3 more productive. Amongst the 13 reorganised pits in the Area, Bold is a proud symbol of the modern coal industry.
Streamlines from face to pithead the new project has more than fulfilled expectations.
With workable reserves of at least 60 million tons, undergroud reorganisation is as impressive as the surface.
Other collieries deliver their coal to Bold for preparation. A thousand tons a day streams out of the colliery straight into the Power Station next door.
And Bold is not the only example. In many pits the entire surface layout has been re-shaped. Electrification, new pit-head baths, new medical centres like that at Colborne, reflect the area’s confidence in its future.
Economy goes hand in hand with high productivity. At Old Boston, methane is tapped from worked out seams to feed the boilers. At Sutton Manor, methane is drained off as well from working faces, making for better conditions underground.
The problem in Area 3 is recruitment - a problem shared by most successful areas in the country.
Apprentices are coming in, backed by the local Education Authorities, to undergo 16 week courses at the Surface Training Centre at Old Boston. Here youngsters learn the rudiments of the many crafts the miner’s job demands.
High production with earnings to match mean a high standard of living for St. Helens miners.
Labour relations are good. Management and men endorse team work as the key to production and safety.
As Area General Manager Anderton knows - a good workers is a happy worker.
St. Helens men earn their leisure and in their Wlefares and in their homes they enjoy it.
Anderton, inventor of the productive Disc shearer, and recently returned from a visit to the Russian coalfields, is confident that when it comes to modern mining methods No. 3 area can show a thing or two to coalfields anywhere in the world.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 4th February 1957.

Keywords

Mining

Locations

England; Lancashire; St Helens

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.12 No.137 March 1958, p118.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board