This is one of many films that the YFA holds that were made by Debenham & Co., founded by Ernest Symmons in York in 1908, before relocating to Beverley, a short distance from Hull, before the First World War.  Many of their films have gone missing, and their probably isn’t a definitive list of all the films they made, although Peter Robinson has provided a fairly comprehensive list in his book (References).   Among those on YFA Online are: Scrap of Paper (1914-18), Official Opening Of...

This is one of many films that the YFA holds that were made by Debenham & Co., founded by Ernest Symmons in York in 1908, before relocating to Beverley, a short distance from Hull, before the First World War.  Many of their films have gone missing, and their probably isn’t a definitive list of all the films they made, although Peter Robinson has provided a fairly comprehensive list in his book (References).   Among those on YFA Online are: Scrap of Paper (1914-18), Official Opening Of Boys Hostel (1928) and King George And Queen Visit Hull (1941)


Gillian Symmons has researched the history of Ernest Frederick Symmons, and Debenham & Co., and provides the following information: “He was born 14 July 1882, the elder son of Frederick Walter Symmons, a draper with shops in Hackney, Boscombe and Bournemouth. He was apprenticed at the age of 16 as a photographer, with the Stereoscopic Company of Regent Street, London, and appears in the 1901 census as an apprentice photographer in Streatham.   After his seven years’ apprenticeship he qualified, and moved north to York [1908] to establish his own business, purchasing the business known as Debenham and Company in Clifford Street, York. 

“In January 1911 Ernest and Leslie requested a three months lease on the Corn Exchange in Beverley, with the aim of showing moving pictures. Their first programme opened on 20 February 1911, showing a coloured Pathé film A drama of 200 years ago, another entitled The opening of parliament by King George V and Bird nesting on Flamboro Head. At this time there was no electricity in Beverley so Ernest and Leslie had their own ‘electricity plant’, an eight-cylinder engine, and within a month the Beverley Guardian said that the Cinematograph exhibitions were ‘the best that have been seen in the town’. The first film they made was in Beverley Market Place of the meet of the Holderness Hounds [March 1911]. He advertised the date of the screening and advised reservation of seats for the Special Hunt Night.” Although mostly he filmed local events – for newsreels (Playhouse News) which he would show before a main feature – he also covered a wider area, as evidenced by this film, in South Yorkshire, and in the following year, 1920, they filmed Popular Wedding at Roundhay, in Leeds.

Manvers Main at Wath in fact consisted of three collieries, with the first being sunk in the late 1890s.  According to the online Rotherham History: “It was part of one of the largest, smelliest, and dirtiest concentrations of industry in South Yorkshire, with coking ovens, by-products plants and vast railway yards, as well as the pits. Within the complex were the regional headquarters and laboratories of British Coal. The colliery complex was closed on 25 March 1988, the coke and by-products factories in 1991. This left behind a huge area of dereliction, tip and slurry ponds. The land remained derelict until the mid-1990s when the government started a regeneration programme with the assistance of the European Social Fund.  Manvers, and the adjoining areas that were formerly the Wath Main Colliery and the Wath marshalling yard were bulldozed, landscaped and are now an area of light industry and commerce part called Manvers Park.” For an overview of what has happened in the last decade to rejuvenate some of the mining areas in Yorkshire see Brian Lewis (References).

At the time of this film the mines were still under wartime control, and it was a dangerous time for the government as there was great unrest among workers in the aftermath of the war. With the example of the 1917 Russian Revolution, and massive upheavals in Germany and Italy, the government held back on wage controls until 1921. When they were finally de-controlled on 31 March 1921, and pay reductions were announced – to be accepted on pain of being sacked – the miners were let down by leaders of the National Transport Workers' Union and the National Union of Railwaymen, with whom they formed a Triple Alliance, who didn’t back them.  The day came to be known as ‘Black Friday’. A miner’s strike at this time could have been crippling, with 1.25m miners producing 300m tonnes of coal per year (1923 figures).  There were national strikes in 1920 and 1921. The cordiality between the owners and the miners that seems to be in evidence in this film might not have been so deep. After the disaster at Gresford Colliery near Wrexham, on September 22, 1934, when 266 lives were lost, not only was there no compensation for those killed, but the dead miners had their pay docked by a quarter for failure to complete the shift!

Whatever the feeling was among the miners at Manvers Main in 1919, those in the film seem to be in good spirits, with one of them doing an impression of the then hugely popular Charlie Chaplin – another impersonation can be seen in Scenes At The Ripon Highland Sports (1916). The general clowning about would have been a staple of films at that time. Also ubiquitous is the flat cap, seemingly worn by all, although other features of the clothing reveal class and occupational distinctions. One of these is the cravat, often white, which was a common part of working class wear – as were vests (see the photos in Brian Elliot, References). In fact these were made fashionable by the pioneer of modern fashion George Bryan "Beau" Brummell in the early 19th century, but had been replaced by the necktie as the more respectable wear for higher classes.

Of the many interesting aspects of the miners noticeable in the film, two at least are worth commenting on. The miner’s lamps that they carry to and from work may have been a Prestwich Patent Protector 08 lamp, which conformed to the new criteria laid down for miner’s safety lamps by the 1911 Coal Mines Act, brought in in the wake of the explosion at Wellington Pit in Cumberland on 11th May, 1910 – see also the Context for CEAG Light Bulb Factory, Barnsley (1931). The second aspect that sticks out to a modern eye is the age of the children walking to and from work down the pit. In early Victorian times children might sometimes start working as young as 5 years of age.  The 1842 Mines and Collieries Act led to the exclusion of all women and girls from British mines and banned children under the age of 10 from working underground.  Later the minimum age was raised to 12 in 1901, and it stayed at that until the Children and Young Persons Act of 1933 raised it to 13.

The judge of the horses' competition in the film, Mrs A T Thompson, is the wife of the Director and General Manager of Manvers Main Colliery Ltd. (which also owned Barnborough Colliery).  According to the grandson of Mr A T Thompson, Peter Thomson, the spelling on the intertitles is incorrect: there is no 'p' in the surname (it is also spelt Thomson on the Durham Mining Museum website, taken from the 1923 Colliery Year Book and Coal Trades Directory). Peter's father was Thomas Joseph Lambton Thomson and his brother was Robert Cecile Thomson.

It isn’t clear from the film what the horses were used for. We are used to hearing about pit ponies, but these are not so described, and the general rule is that a pony at maturity isn’t more than 4 feet 10 inches (147 cm), although this is not the decisive criteria as there are differences in physique and temperament. In fact both ponies and horses were used, although because the height restriction in pits, usually of 5 feet, and their more suitable temperament, it was mainly ponies.  There seems to be a mixture of both in the film (any equine experts might be able help here), with the larger horses probably moving coal above ground.


According to the entry on Pit Ponies on the website dedicated to Philip Healey – of Ilkeston Mines Rescue – there were, amazingly, still ponies working in mines at the outbreak of the Great Strike in 1984 (albeit only 55 of them). It isn’t clear how many there were at the time of this film, but there were 70,000 working underground on the eve of the First World War. Around that time protest groups led by the National Equine Defence League and the Scottish Society to Promote Kindness to Pit Ponies had pressurised the government into setting up a Royal Commission Report in 1911. This led to improved stable conditions, a competent horse-keeper being required for every 15 horses, and banning their use underground if under four years' old. From the time of this film, in 1919, the introduction of new coal cutting machines locomotives and then conveyors, led to their numbers declining to around 32,000 by the end of the 1930s, 21,000 when nationalised in 1947, 15,500 in 1952, and 6,400 by 1962.

Colliery horse competitions were common at many of the pits, as well as pit pony races. There is a marvelous photo of an ex pit pony living out its days in the home of a miner’s family from  Barnborough Main Colliery (also spelt Barnburgh), in Brian Elliot.


It was the miners at Manvers that sparked off the Great Strike of 1984, walking out over the lack of consultation.   Before long over six thousand miners came out on strike. An announcement by the Coal Board that five pits were to be subject to "accelerated closure" within just five weeks, including nearby Cortonwood and Bullcliffe Wood collieries, led to a local ballot at these two pits on 5th March, voting for strike action. The following day miners from Yorkshire picketed the Nottinghamshire coalfield, and Arthur Scargill, the NUM President called a national strike on the 12th.

Arguments continue over whether this picketing was a major factor in the defeat of the strike. It was used as a reason by the majority of Nott’s miners who continued working, claiming the need for a national ballot. Their continued working certainly made it more difficult, especially in getting support from other workers.   Had they supported the strike the miners would have had a much greater chance of winning, even though the government had prepared for the strike and had built large reserves of coal in power stations.

Before the miners' strike in 1984, Yorkshire had a total of 56 collieries, of which there were 11 in the Rotherham district.  Now there are only three remaining working pits in the region: Kellingley, the largest, Maltby the second biggest, and Hatfield, near Doncaster, the third. Rossington was mothballed in April 2006. Their biggest customer is the Drax coal-fired power station in Yorkshire. At the time of writing (July 2010), the future of these pits is uncertain, although proposals for more deep mines are still being floated – see also Bands and Banners (1991). Despite new technology to capture harmful by-products, it might be thought that fossil fuels must make way for cleaner energy sources.   But whatever the future of deep coal mining, it is to be hoped that children and animals never have to work underground, in this country or any other.



References


Vic Allen, The Militancy Of British Miners, Moor Press, 1981.

Brian Elliot, Yorkshire Miners, Sutton, Stroud, 2004.


Brian Lewis with Don Stewart, From The Enemy Within To The Russians Are Coming: The Single Regeneration Budget 5 & 6 Schemes in the Yorkshire Coalfields, Yorkshire Forward, Leeds, 2007.

Peter H Robinson, The Home of Beautiful Pictures, Beverley, Hutton Press, 1984.

Gillian Symmons, Ernest Frederick Symmons: Cinema proprietor and film maker, unpublished manuscript, January 2009.

Manvers Main Collieries Ltd, at Durham Mining Museum


Pit Ponies, Philip Healey website

‘Yorkshire coal mining groups call off talks on merger plans’, Yorkshire Post, 10 June 2010