Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 22563 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| THE MONKTON COKE WORKS | 1958 | 1958-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 9 mins 28 secs Credits: Durham Division, National Coal Board Genre: Industrial Subject: Working Life Industry Coal |
| Summary This industrial documentary by the National Coal Board shows the operation of the Monkton Coke Works at Mill Lane, near Hebburn on Tyneside, built by John Bowes and Partners Ltd in 1936. |
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Description
This industrial documentary by the National Coal Board shows the operation of the Monkton Coke Works at Mill Lane, near Hebburn on Tyneside, built by John Bowes and Partners Ltd in 1936.
Title: The Monkton Coke Works Durham Division, National Coal Board
A general view of the coke works from nearby fields opens the film.
A well-kept flower bed near some outbuildings is shown next followed by a change of view showing other buildings and plant on the coke works site.
Coal trucks stand in...
This industrial documentary by the National Coal Board shows the operation of the Monkton Coke Works at Mill Lane, near Hebburn on Tyneside, built by John Bowes and Partners Ltd in 1936.
Title: The Monkton Coke Works Durham Division, National Coal Board
A general view of the coke works from nearby fields opens the film.
A well-kept flower bed near some outbuildings is shown next followed by a change of view showing other buildings and plant on the coke works site.
Coal trucks stand in lines in a rail siding. A line of trucks is moved forward into a shed.
Title: Woodham-Duckham Koppers Coke Ovens – Charging Coal Into The Ovens
A large moving platform with a cabin and other structures on top moves along rails. It stops and a workman watches five chutes underneath the platform discharge coal into openings in the floor of the gantry over which the platform travels.
Another large platform and gantry travel along rails in front of a large structure.
A workman opens a vent on top of a cylindrical oven which lets out flames and heavy smoke. Another man comes by and pulls back a round metal plate in the floor of the platform, again smoke pours out.
Another view shows the top of the cylindrical ovens. A workman opens a vent on the top of one of them. On the floor of the platform a workman removes a round metal plate. He removes another plate nearby, and uses the metal rod to remove another covering underneath. Flames shoot out of the top of one of the cylinders.
On another part of the structure a man uses a long metal pole, to operate some device high above him. The workman uses a hand cranked device to lock a large steel structure in place on a coke oven door. The oven door is opened and reveals coke glowing with the heat and producing smoke. The workman removes another coke oven door.
Title: Woodall-Duckham Koppers Coke Ovens – Pushing Coke From The Ovens
A close-up follows of a workman on the mobile gantry operating the ram which will push the coke out of the oven. The ram enters the red hot oven and is withdrawn. There’s intense heat inside the empty oven.
The new glowing coke is pushed out into a large container that runs on rails operated by a workman. A closer view shows the hot coke tumbling into the container. It then goes into a shed with a brick flue above, where the coke is quenched with water. Steam ad smoke come out of the chimney above.
A number of grill-like structures hold back the new coke each structure can pivot and a workman rocks one of these grills back and forth to control the coke’s descent down a chute.
The film ends as a covered conveyor belt taking the coke to be loaded on to rail trucks, which is followed by a general repeat view of the works.
[The works were nationalised in 1947 and came under the control of the National Coal Board. A major programme of extension and reconstruction took place in 1953-1956.The works were decommissioned in 1990 and demolished 1992-1993. The site was redeveloped as a business park and Monkton Community Woodland.]
Context
The industrial documentary of Monkton Coke Works was acquired from the Beamish Museum. The museum’s collection with the film archives primarily consists of documentary style films regarding the coal mining industry and farming, but it also includes films surrounding student life at Durham university and several high schools in the Northeast. This documentary was initially made by the Durham Division, National Coal Board in 1958 and takes the audience through the process of creating coke oven...
The industrial documentary of Monkton Coke Works was acquired from the Beamish Museum. The museum’s collection with the film archives primarily consists of documentary style films regarding the coal mining industry and farming, but it also includes films surrounding student life at Durham university and several high schools in the Northeast. This documentary was initially made by the Durham Division, National Coal Board in 1958 and takes the audience through the process of creating coke oven gas.
Monkton Coke Works was built by John Bowes and Partner Ltd in 1936 in response to the Jarrow hunger march in protest in 1932. During the early 1930s, there were several hunger strikes across the country (mainly organised by the National Unemployed Workers’ movement) because of the Great Depression and mass unemployment which created national unrest. John Bowes and Partners Ltd was a company registered in 1886 and up to the nationalisation of the mining industry they owned several collieries/mines in the Northeast. The Monkton Coke works was nationalised in 1947 and was bought under the National Coal Board, who created this film. The National Coal Board were responsible for the major programme of extension and reconstruction of the mining industry from 1953 to 1956 and the control of input and output of coal and their quality and price. A year prior to this film being created, the annual report and statements of the National Coal Board was released explaining that Durham were at the top of the industry in terms of production. The Northeast particularly is characterised by its mining industry as many worked in the mines and coke plants and it was a large part of society and culture. This type of film is a documentary created by the National Coal Board with the purpose of a documentary being to inform an audience. As a result of the annual reports, it is possible that this film was produced to promote the successes of the coke plant and to set example to the rest of the country. With the use of titles throughout the film, the film is created for informational purposes to show the coal going into the ovens and the creation of coke once the distillation process had occurred. This film about the Monkton Coke Works shows the process in which workers at the plant go through to produce coke oven gas. A coking plant heats coal up to 1250 degrees Celsius and through distillation, large amounts of gas and smoke and damaging by-products like tar, sulphur and ammonia are created. From the first title in the film, the coal is charged into the Woodham-Duckham Koppers Coke ovens which when opened by a workman flames and heavy smoke are released. Using hand cranked devices, the workers unlock large steel structures that were placed in front of the coke oven door to remove the coke from the furnace. Once the coke is removed using a man-powered ram, the next stage of the process puts the coke into a brick flue where water is then added creating more steam and smoke. At the end of the film the coke is then loaded onto rail trucks for transport. The content in this film shows the audience how the Monkton Coke plant operates under the Durham Division, National Coal Board. This is significant as not only was the coal industry instilled in the culture and society of the Northeast, but Durham had the best reputation for its performance and this film is a prime example of how industrial plants like Monkton Coke Works operate successfully. Bibliography "Coking Plant". ArcelorMittal in Belgium <https://belgium.arcelormittal.com/en/work-environment/coking-plant/> [accessed 17 December 2021] "Coking plant". Global Energy Monitor <https://www.gem.wiki/Coking_plant> [accessed 17 December 2021] "History of Clement Attlee - GOV.UK". Gov.uk <https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/clement-attlee> [accessed 17 December 2021] "Monkton Coke Works - Wikipedia". En.wikipedia.org <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkton_Coke_Works> [accessed 17 December 2021] "Monkton Coking Works (1936 - 1990) | Co-Curate". Co-curate.ncl.ac.uk <https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/monkton-coking-works/> [accessed 17 December 2021] Museum, Durham. "Durham Mining Museum - John Bowes and Partners Ltd.", Dmm.org.uk <http://www.dmm.org.uk/company/b004.htm> [accessed 17 December 2021] "NATIONAL COAL BOARD (Hansard, 14 July 1958)". Api.parliament.uk <https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1958/jul/14/national-coal-board> [accessed 17 December 2021] "National Coal Board - Wikipedia". En.wikipedia.org <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coal_Board> [accessed 17 December 2021] "National Hunger March, 1932 - Wikipedia". En.wikipedia.org <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hunger_March,_1932> [accessed 17 December 2021] |
