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A typical educational film of the 1950s that developed from director J.B.
Napier-Bell's own work in Forward a Century (1951). That film relied on
historical prints to show the similarities and contrasts between Britain in 1851
and 1951 by means of the Great Exhibition and the Festival of Britain.
Napier-Bell was also inspired by the Shell Film Unit's Transfer of Power (1939),
which charted the development of power from the wooden cog-wheels of wind and
water-mills to the gears of motor cars and turbines.
The film combines prints, animation, historical reconstructions and models to
convey a history of coal mining in Britain from the 11th century. By far the
most effective sequences are the reconstructions which were filmed in the pits
of the Forest of Dean and used the families of the Forest of Dean miners. The
action scenes, coupled with the voice-overs of children and adults relating
their experiences of working in a pit, are particularly touching and evocative.
The scripts were presumably culled from the various government reports into
working conditions during the middle of the 19th century. The Forest of Dean
pits lent themselves well to filming as they had no gas. Other pits had
extensive safety measures owing to the danger of explosions and filming was thus
limited.
The only real difficulty in filming in the Forest of Dean mines lay in the
staging of explosions. Explosions were needed to show the danger of gas
(firedamp) and the development of safety measures such as Humphrey Davey's lamp.
By using 'magicians wool' (cotton wool impregnated with magnesium), a large
flash could be filmed which would not create large quantities of smoke or other
gases.
Effective use is also made of actual working engines and machinery. Tyneside
Colliery, Lambton engine works and Monkwearmouth colliery had functioning
machinery from the 19th century and their machinery is featured in the film. The
coastline of Pembroke provided the landscape for the opening scenes of people
gathering sea coal for the local monasteries. This tradition of collecting sea
coal lasted well into the 20th century and was graphically portrayed in the film
Seacoal (1985).
Simon Baker
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Complete film (30:40)
