DOWNFALL

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 17th Year

Issue

Issue No.

9

Date Released

May 1964

Length of issue (in feet)

905

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1LIQUID ASSETS
2. 2DOWNFALL
3. 3FINAL NIGHT

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: The fall of Oakdale’s redundant smoke stacks as this South Wales pit changes from steam-winding to an automatic electric winder.
NCB Commentary - For almost 40 years the smoke of the steam winding engine at Oakdale Colliery in South Wales left through these two 220 ft. high chimneys.
But progress and modernisation have stepped in - and Oakdale now has a spanking new electric winder. So long as a pit is productive there’s always a place for modernisation.
And so there was no more work for the two smoke-stacks which over the years became almost a symbol of Oakdale Pit.
Demolition begins with a thorough inspection by Mr. Jones, the Mining Planning Engineer. Every step has to be planned down to the smallest detail. For Mr. Parish - "Area Destruction Manager" they call him - this is nothing less than a military operation.
Action Stations! And Mr. Parish drills into the foot of the stack. It is an elaborate problem to decide where to bore these holes, for on the way they are placed, depends how and where the chimneys will fall. Not a single brick must damage the colliery buildings. Mr. Parish - used to build such chimneys and now he dynamites them by the hundred.
The explosive is put in tamped home.
Early next morning. The day of the explosion. Everyone at Oakdale looked up to the chimneys - and now their downfall is going to cause a local sensation.
2 score years of service - and just a few seconds more to go.
One down - and now the other.
This must be one of Mr. Parish’s more professional tricks ...
And for the onlookers on the hilltop this is how the demolition of the second chimney looked.
Oakdale’s proud sentinels bit the dust. And where steam left off, automatic electric winding takes over for the productive days ahead.

Keywords

Buildings and structures; Mining; Demolition

Locations

Wales

Written sources

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

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit