An old documentary made in 1948 shows what life was like at Gedling Colliery, which at the time was one of the deepest pits in the region.
The documentary ‘A Pit is Born’ concentrates on the way the pit increased its output following the introduction of new technology.
This remarkable film captures every part of the mining process. It shows workers cutting coal, conveying the coal from the face and then taking it to the sorting plant (weighing it along the way) to be sorted.
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The film shows how sorting was still carried out by hand, but instead of physically picking up the coal, workers pushed it into the correct chutes with the aid of rakes. The commentator compares this with “a croupier sorting gambling chips at Monte Carlo”.
Gedling Colliery, which was the life-blood of Gedling and many of the surrounding villages when it opened back in 1899. The pit was finally closed in 1991 and the site was transformed into the picturesque Gedling Country Park in 2015.
Have you memories of Gedling Colliery? Share them with us by emailing news@gedlingeye.co.uk or post in the comments section below.
