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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.
Advert 1985 2 mins
Take a fighter jet, a Top Gun pilot with sunglasses and a brand new SAAB 900 and you have a sure-fire vehicle to launch a Hollywood career.
Promotional 2019 10 mins
A wandering warrior dreams of a new form of expression, in this promo for UNKLE’s album The Road: Part II / Lost Highway Pt. II directed by Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones.
1935 16 mins
A rare glimpse of 1930s London in colour: the Thames has never looked lovelier.
Advert 1946 1 mins Silent
Life is looking up! The war is over and the “Corona” Man can visit his “Corona” families once more, door-to-door.
Advert 1962 0 mins Location: Rhyl
Cinema advertisement for Marine Lake & Ocean Beach, Rhyl, a popular destination for crowds set on a day's fun on free rides.
Advert 1942 7 mins Silent Location: Blaenau Ffestiniog
Who could deny these advertising claims: "Attractive hair is the ambition of every woman", and "Your family will enjoy Lincoln potatoes"?
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