BFI

This Mining Review item looks at the reconstruction of Scotland's coal industry, with the aim of streamlining work and reducing unemployment. Previously, Scotland was divided up into eight mining regions, but in the mid-1960s this was drastically simplified to just two, North and South, bisected by the River Forth.

From the end of World War II to the 1960s, Scotland's economy has shifted from one based entirely around heavy industry (iron, steel, shipbuilding, engineering) to a far more diversified one. As a result, power requirements have increased substantially, and neither hydroelectricity nor nuclear power are capable of filling the gap.

This film was made when the Longannet power station was under construction. When it came on stream in 1970 (not 1968, as predicted somewhat over-confidently by the commentary) it was the second biggest coal-fired power station in Britain, and one of the largest in Europe, supplying electricity both to central and southern Scotland and also further afield. Its rate of coal consumption can exceed 10,000 tonnes per day, originally supplied directly from Longannet Colliery via underground conveyor belt until the mine's premature closure in 2002 following severe flooding.

Michael Brooke

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