FRED’S PITCH

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 16th Year

Issue

Issue No.

2

Date Released

Oct 1962

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1HOLIDAY ON WHEELS
2. 2STONEMAN
3. 3FRED’S PITCH
4. 4THE LIMBURG WALK

Story

Story No. within this Issue

3 / 4

Summary

BFI synopsis: the function of coal in the manufacture of carpets at a factory at Brighouse, Yorkshire.
NCB Commentary - Near this spot, Robin Hood died. His bows were made from a tree in nearby Hartshead churchyard - or so they say. Today, what was once a part of Sherwood is on the fringe of an industrial area.
In a Brighouse carpet factory, Fred Booth tends the boilers. The fuel used is creosote pitch, a by-product of coal. It flows rather like oil, and is atomised and burnt in much the same way. Four thousand-five hundred tons a year are used and the plant has been working efficiently since 1942.
When he’s not at the boilers’ controls, Fred Booth relaxes, very sensibly, on a carpet-covered seat. For the steam Fred raises is used to make carpets - Axminsters and Wiltons - to support the measured tread of people all over the world.
The proces of making a carpet begins in the design department. This is the beginning of a new Axminster pattern. Stitch by stitch it grows under the expert brush of Herbert Richmond. Then, Miss Kitson takes over - matching the dyes to the artist’s original conception.
Having got the colours right, the woll is wound from these bobbins onto spools - and they’re wound in the right pattern and colour order. It’s a tricky job - but with the artist’s design as a guide, the girls are highly skilled in this branch of carpet magic.
In this form the wool goes to the loom and the real job of making the carpet begins. As warp and weft are interwoven, the shape and pattern created on the drawing board, come to life.
It’s all the result of experience going back to 1867, the date of the firm’s foundation.
In a way it all starts with Fred Booth, watching from his carpet seat, the boilers he so efficiently controls.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded at Kays Carlton Hill on 3rd September 1962.

Keywords

Industry and manufacture; Fuels

Locations

Yorkshire; England

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board