ON THE SPOT

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 12th Year

Issue

Issue No.

7

Date Released

Mar 1959

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1CLEANER
2. 2ON THE SPOT
3. 3BIG SHOT
4. 4RAKE’S PROGRESS

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: At Westfield, Fife, a new coal-into-gas plant is inaugurated.
NCB Commentary - At Westfield, Fife, the huge new 1 million-ton-a-year coal preparation plant is nearly completed. On this site - once a peat bog and useless for agriculture will be the largest coal-direct-into-gas project ever in Britain. Bulldozers and graders are busy clearing away the top soil.
Recently came the Minister of Power, Lord Mills, to cut the first sod for the Scottish Gas Board’s new gasification plant.
Raw coal from the site will feed directly into this plant, the first high pressure installation in Great Britain, to feed the Scottish Gas Grid.
After the speech making was over, Lord Mills made a whirlwind tour of the site, taking in the Dutch Dredger, previously seen in Mining Review, which has been excavating peat from the new works.
He saw too, a pair of vast coal bunkers, each capable of holding 13 thousand tons, which will act as the storage reservoirs of the new installation.
Lord Mills left the site with a fresh appreciation of Scotland’s fuel and industrial future.
Gigantic as they are, these machines have to be helped out by a friendly shove from a bulldozer.
Although Westfield is still in the development stage, an output of 15 million cubic feet of gas a day from the plant inaugurated by Lord Mills, is expected by the Autumn of 1960.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 2nd February 1959.

Keywords

Industry and manufacture; Mining; Fuels

Locations

Scotland; Fife

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
Film User   Vol.13 No.157 November 1959, p585.
The National Archives COAL 32   /12 Scripts for Mining Review, 1956-1960

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board