FUTURE DEFINITE

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 10th Year

Issue

Issue No.

12

Date Released

Aug 1957

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1FUTURE DEFINITE
2. 2GUESS WHAT?
3. 3SONGS OF THE COAL FIELDS: "The Blantyre Explosion"
4. 4SKY’S THE LIMIT

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: inauguration of Parkside colliery, Lancashire, and the first coal from Kinneil
NCB Commentary - A new name joins the list of British collieries - the first pit to be sunk in Lancashire for over thirty years.
With a target output of a million tons a year, Parkside will take the place of older pits in the area which are nearing the end of their productive lives.
On the site of the new colliery offices, a foundation stone was laid by Mrs. Bolton, wife of the North-Western Divisional Chairman.
Two shafts are to be sunk; each a thousand yards deep.
Area General Manager Anderton invited Mrs. Bolton to inaugurate the new pit and God’s blessing was asked on the project and on the 22-hundred men who will win the coal.
Mrs. Bolton certainly took every precaution to see that the stone was properly bedded down! To the music of local colliery bands, Parkside was born.
Five years from now the pit will begin to play its part in ensuring the properity of the Lancashire Coal-field.
Meanwhile, up in Scotland, another million ton a year unit swings into production.
A year ago, in Mining Review, we saw the installation of the German winding equipment, made to service Kinneil and its seventy-five million ton reserves of coal.
Today, the job is finished. The old Furnace Yard pit still stands beside the new tower of Kinneil, but for the fifteen hundred men who are to work there housing estates must be built for the future.
Mrs. Cook, wife of one of Kinneil’s onsetters, shares on the surface the improved conditions her husband will enjoy underground.
Today, the new winding equipment in No.1 shaft has started to raise coal at a rate which will build up to three thousand tons a day.
Set 140-feet above the ground, the twin winders are working the 750 yard level.
Eventually the pit will probe down nearly 3,000 feet under the Firth of Forth.
There are three decks on each of the four cages in No.1 shaft.
It takes the engineman only 36 seconds to discharge a full set. Every move of the winding gear is automatically recorded.
The two-ton capacity mine cars follow an automatic circuit in the big car handling hall. One man controls the whole shooting match.
Throughout the coal preparation plant and the marshalling yards beyond, mechanical aids help the men on the job.
At No.2 mn riding shaft, it’s shift change-over time. Onsetter Cook has finished his stint. Up he comes, through the new pit-head baths and off on his way home.
Cook, Town Councillor and Union delegate, is secure in the enjoyment of his new home and his job in the new Kinneil pit.
The change over from Furnace Yard to the new Kinneil means for the Cook family a stake in Scotland’s industrial future.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 8th July 1957.

Keywords

Domestic life; Mining; Ceremonies; Energy resources

Locations

England; Lancashire

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