In the Low (1946) | BFI National Archive

Claustrophobics will quiver at the miners in a low shaft, laying on a conveyor belt and transported deep under Northumberland. Work on the floor of the belt makers in Gateshead is less cramped but no lighter. There are youthful apprentices and old hands side by side at jig and lathe; in the era before automation, manual operations rule and there's a job for all. The dialogue between narrator and an American reveals the film's promotional intent, but surely no one's buying that phoney accent?
Production company the Big Six Film Unit was one of many small documentary outfits outputting industrial films in the post-war era. While filming of the nationalised coal producer was sewn up by the state's documentary makers (at the Central Office of Information and National Coal Board Film Unit), Big Six's eccentric supremo, Edward Cook, picked up work around the industry making low-budget promotional films for ancillary companies and the National Union of Mineworkers. This film followed and continued another Big Six film, In the Pentland Hills, made for the same client: mining machinery supplier Hugh Wood & Co.
This video is part of the Orphan Works collection. When the rights-holder for a film cannot be found, that film is classified as an Orphan Work. Find out more about Orphan Works: ec.europa.eu/internal_market/c.... This is in line with the EU Orphan Works Directive of 2012. The results of our search for the rights holder of this film can be found in the EU Orphan Works Database: euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en...
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[@bigoldgrizzly]

An old man now, with knackered knees, back, hands and just about everything else, but i never regret my choice to go down the pit. I worked in seams from 30 to 48" most of my time and there was no better comradeship in all the world ..... I miss it still.. I recently bought a 350lb [[150kg] anvil that was 'taken into protective custody' ;

[@glyngibbs9489]

Love the Cholmondley-Warner commentary

[@brianknowles1727]

Those props and W bars are really heavy and they make it look easy.

[@bigoldgrizzly]

No cranes or forklifts down the pit, but basic mechanics a lot of guile and a couple of colliers could shift anything. ..... a skill that used to be known as 'Pitmatics'

[@ypaulbrown]

love this sort of film.....

[@Bob-nu3xe]

did 32 years the dust, noise and smell I will never forget

[@robnewman6101]

Keep Calm and Carry on.

[@rosewhite---]

Is that one solid slab of rock over the conveyor operator's head or was it coal?
Which colliery was this one with four shafts?

[@davidclark3603]

All the British coal mines will reopen. All the foreigners are either running out, or, they haven't invested in modernisation and countries like India, China etc. Are all in trouble!. They're short! And what is left is too expensive to mine. British coal is the finest in the world and we have loads of it. A new pit is being dug in Cumbria and there was no opposition, only tree huggers! Coal will be Britain's biggest industry, again!

[@rosewhite---]

Pit plan is still being tossed around and unlikely to see fruition for 20 more years!

[@rapman5363]

😂😂😂😂

[@davidlee6720]

bet the posh commentor never done a hard days graft in his life!

[@BlackRose-vi2yg]

I don't know about then but now anything made in Britain does not even work. High price and bad quality