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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.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1964 2 mins
Miners' safety training - marked by stylish animation and gallows humour.
Advert 1935 42 mins Silent Location: Cardiff/Caerdydd
Coal, between the world wars, makes the industrialised world go round and Cory Bros & Co Ltd, with collieries in south Wales and oil refineries across the globe, is a major player.
Industry sponsored film 1978 7 mins Location: Blaenavon
Memories of Blaenavon Colliery, Monmouthshire, as it nears its end.
Documentary 1954 18 mins
Elegiac sponsored film imploring viewers to "allow the sun to penetrate the haze of ignorance" and relieve British cities of pollution.
Advert 1975 1 mins
Deliriously kitsch recruitment ad for the implausibly glamorous world of coalmining.
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.
Charity appeal 2020 2 mins
Beautiful NHS fundraiser, setting Michael Rosen’s poem to powerful archive images.
Non-Fiction 1901 4 mins Silent Location: Manchester
A volunteer cavalry regiment is enthusiastically welcomed home after active service in South Africa.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent Location: Liverpool
All ashore! Passengers disembark and crew offload after a long Atlantic crossing.
Non-Fiction 1902 3 mins Silent Location: Weston Park
A stroll in the park for civilised city-dwellers in Edwardian South Yorkshire.
Non-Fiction 1924 1 mins Silent Location: Woking
The UK's first purpose-built mosque welcomes a huge crowd of worshippers - and newsreel cameras!
Comedy 1914 9 mins Silent
A vicar is caught flirting with an improperly-dressed chorus girl in this saucy silent comedy.
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