Yorkshire - NEW HEADQUARTERS

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 20th Year

Issue

Issue No.

4

Date Released

Dec 1966

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Country Durham - LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES
2. 2Yorkshire - NEW HEADQUARTERS
3. 3Nottinghamshire - SISTER

Story

Story No. within this Issue

2 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: Part of the Board’s new Headquarters at Coal House, Doncaster, into which some of the Coal Board’s staff are moving.
NCB Commentary - This is Brodsworth Colliery, one of the 75 long-life pits that make the Yorkshire coalfield the biggest in the country, tuning up to produce over 50 million tons of coal a year.
The coalfield supplies the great Yorkshire woollen-towns in the Northwest, and the steel-towns of south Yorkshire. And through new tunnels driven under the Pennines electric trains haul millions of tons of coal into Lancashire.
Yorkshire supplies an evergrowing cluster of power-stations down toward the Humber and along the Trent. Some of these each use 2 million tons of coal year - producing the power that Britain needs.
To the east it is a short train haul to Immingham - Europe’s most modern coal exporting port. From here British Coal starts its journey to Italy, Denmark, and to Germany.
As coal is exported from Yorkshire, people are moving in. From N.C.B. headquarters, until now centred in London, many-key staff are moving to Doncaster, smack in the centre of the Yorkshire coal field. Doncaster is being completely remodelled - new houses, shops and offices are going up - as well as a brand new Civic Centre.
And in the Civic Centre are the new Coal Board headquarters - originally planned to house the Yorkshire Division, but now adapted to meet the industry’s new needs.
Some staff are already in. The first of the computers, which will eventually handle all the Board’s Finances and a lot of other problems as well, is working in it’s air conditioned hall.
There are 12 floors - all on the open plan and adaptable for anything.
At 6 foot intervals throughout the building you can plug into telephone and light. A single telephone will give outside calls, inside calls, and access to teleprinters and a tape bank, to which letters can be dictated. The system is so modern that 3 operators will handle what is usually work for 15.
In the basement, the solid fuel boilers will heat not only this building, but the rest of the civic centre as well. A modern heating plant - no stoking, no ash disposal problems. Coal is fed in automatically.
Over there - in the new Technical College, in the new Town Hall and in it’s projects, in its modern suburbs and parks, Doncaster is set for the future, and with it, the Yorkshire Coalfield.

Keywords

Buildings and structures; Mining

Locations

Doncaster; Yorkshire; England

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