A series of camera rushes produced by filmmaker Alan Marsden and shot shortly after the end of miners’ strike in July 1985. The film shows men illegally mining for coal in a small seam in a wooded area between the villages of Craghead and South Stanley in County Durham. The footage shows views of the mine and surrounding woodland as well as two men digging in their makeshift shaft, extracting, sorting and carrying the coal back to the nearby village. The rushes were produced to be made into a...

A series of camera rushes produced by filmmaker Alan Marsden and shot shortly after the end of miners’ strike in July 1985. The film shows men illegally mining for coal in a small seam in a wooded area between the villages of Craghead and South Stanley in County Durham. The footage shows views of the mine and surrounding woodland as well as two men digging in their makeshift shaft, extracting, sorting and carrying the coal back to the nearby village. The rushes were produced to be made into a short film, but this was never completed. The film open on houses in the village South Stanley on a hillside in the near distance. In the foreground a meadow of freshly cut grass. From inside the mine shaft a pair of hands hold a clapperboard in the entrance.  The board is snapped and then thrown into the shaft. A man pushed a breadbasket down into the mine. Back outside there is a view of a woodland area in a valley with trees and ferns growing in abundance. A path leads through the bush to the entrance of the hidden mine. A view of a rocky outcrop follows with what appears to be a landslide nearby. A camera slate reads ‘Pickings 29.7.85. Loose Alliance’. It is clapped and a man appears walking along the woodland track, only his feet and body are shown with his head out of shot. There is a second take. In the next take the man picks up a breadbasket resting beside the shaft and takes it underground. Again, there is a second take of this shot. From above the mine a view follows looking across the wooded valley and down onto the muddy area in front of the entrance. A breadbasket lies nearby. From inside the mine a breadbasket appears full of coal, additional bits are thrown onto it. In an open area in front of the mine surrounded by dense foliage another breadbasket, a plastic sack and a wooden crate full of lumps of coal.    A pair of dusty hands clap to indicate another take followed by a man using a shovel to load a sieve with coal and dropping larger lumps of coal into a breadbasket sitting nearby. [Blank] A view of a steep woody bank is followed by additional shots of coal being sieved and the remaining content being transferred into a breadbasket. The top half of a man appears and takes a large hessian sack that has been hidden in undergrowth near a tree. Several takes show the man lifting the sack onto his shoulders and carrying it along a muddy track through the woods and past a rocky outcrop. Resting on a rock beside the outcrop is a wooden pit prop. The man carrying the sack appears from the wood and walks towards a number of houses on the edge of Craghead. Underground, and inside the mine two men work to extract coal. One of the men uses a pickaxe to hack into the coal seam while the other loads and moves the full breadbasket back towards the entrance. The second man pushes an empty basket back towards the seam and using a shovel to begins filling it again. The roof of the workings is supported by a number wooden pit props similar to the one seen previously. Outside the mine entrance one of the muddy miners speaks to someone off camera. The clapperboard is used twice. [Blank] Additional shots showing the man carrying the sack through the wood. A pair of hands fill a large plastic sack with lumps of coal. The film ends with under-exposed and shaky views inside the mine.