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Deep underground, Yorkshire miners hew their living out of the coalface.
Amateur film 1928 26 mins Silent
This astonishingly ambitious amateur documentary examines the working lives of Barnsley's pitmen, whose muscle and machinery cut deep into the South Yorkshire Coalfield. It's an industrial process film at heart, following the miners' journey to work, descent at the pithead, labour underground, and the cut coal's journey by rail to Grimsby docks. Stylish and poetic, the scenes at the coalface are charged with elemental drama.
The film was directed by former miner Charles Hanmer, and made for Danish coal merchants Dansk Andels Kulforretning. Hanmer revisited the footage shot for Tour of a British Coal Mine in 1932, recycling some of the underground scenes for his debut feature Black Diamonds (also available on BFI Player).
Documentary 1950 36 mins Silent Location: Featherstone
Absorbing overview of coalmining in the early years of nationalisation.
Non-Fiction 1930 2 mins Silent Location: Durham
Billowing banners and copious crowds throng Durham for the annual Miners' Gala.
Current affairs 1984 6 mins Location: Stafford
With a crowd of over 2,000 and a pop star like reception for Arthur Scargill, the NUM conference in Sheffield is a rallying cry from the striking miners.
Documentary 1935 5 mins
A filmic speed date with the multifaceted rock celebrates its talents and virtues in the days before its shortcomings soured the relationship.
Documentary 1989 46 mins Location: Loughor
From Tenerife to Treorchy: Jack Bellamy’s tribute to the canary, the little yellow songster that saved so many miners’ lives.
Documentary 1975 14 mins
A neat coalition between the Keep Britain Tidy Group and the National Coal Board aims to inspire colliery cleanliness.
Lifestyle show 1976 26 mins Location: Barnsley
Barnsley-born actor Brian Glover returns to his Yorkshire hometown in this RTS-winning portrait of 1970s working-class northern life.
Industry sponsored film 1931 6 mins Silent Location: Barnsley
Barnsley CEAG factory women light the way forward for mining safety lamp production in this informative 1930s short film.
Documentary 1982 26 mins Location: Gascoigne Wood Mine
A highly revealing look at the high expectations for coal mining in Yorkshire shortly before the defeat of the miners and mass pit closures.
Documentary 1986 24 mins Location: Scarborough
A real appetiser of a film, as Yorkshire and beyond reveals some of its gastronomic concoctions, such as the Pontefract cake, Bakewell pudding, and fare not for the queasy.
Amateur film 1932 50 mins Location: Doncaster
A Barnsley miner dreams of shooting a film about life down the pits in this audaciously ambitious amateur feature.
Amateur film 1964 60 mins Silent Location: Barnsley
You may remember school processions, or having to perform in a play in front of the parents, as rather dull; not for these children in the early 1960s who clearly relish showing off.
Comedy 1919 35 mins Silent
A protective father masquerades as an automatic doll in this bonkers interwar comedy.
1937 11 mins Silent
May Day – a significant day for the labour movement – is covered by the cameras of the Film and Photograph League.
Performance 1986 55 mins
An exploration of the life and work of the controversial British composer.
1935 9 mins
Let it bleed? This exemplary education film gets to the heart of the matter.
Non-Fiction 1935 12 mins Silent
Punchy political film capturing mass protests against unemployment.
1937 15 mins Silent
A spirited satire on the coronation of George VI made by members of the Film and Photograph League.
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