A film made by students of the North East Media Training Centre, also known as the European Media School. Following the closure of Westoe Colliery near South Shields in May 1993, former miners talk about the challenges they’ve faced both in finding new employment, but also in the loss of comradeship. The film uses archive footage material to help illustrate some of their experiences working as a miner. A clip from an edition of the National Coal Board Mining Review dated 1974 highlighting...

A film made by students of the North East Media Training Centre, also known as the European Media School. Following the closure of Westoe Colliery near South Shields in May 1993, former miners talk about the challenges they’ve faced both in finding new employment, but also in the loss of comradeship. The film uses archive footage material to help illustrate some of their experiences working as a miner. A clip from an edition of the National Coal Board Mining Review dated 1974 highlighting coal reserves which is believed enough to last for a hundred years. The film changes to the demolition of the Westoe Colliery Tower in December 1993. Title: Westoe. Last Pit on the Tyne A montage of black and white archive clips featuring crowds parading through Durham as part of the Durham Miners Gala and of miners working underground at a coal seam. Inside ‘The Cricketer’ public house at Gateshead five ex-miners from Westoe Colliery sit around a table chatting over pints of beer. They talk about their time at the mine, what they miss and life since being made redundant and being on the dole. As they talk more archive footage of miners going on shift at a mine. Four of the men finish their drinks and leave, they can’t afford a second pint one of them explains. More archive of miners stepping into a lift and being lowered down the pit shaft and them walking towards the coalface. A structural map of Westoe Colliery showing the various coal seams and the route miners would have taken to reach the seam intercut with more archive of miners travelling by train and foot to reach their seam which, at Westoe, was ten miles under the North Sea. Archive of a miner at the controls of coal cutting machine which is extracting the coal from the seam. The sequence ends on apprentice miners being instructed about their future roles. Back in ‘The Cricketer’ the remaining former miners sits alone drinking his pint. More archive of miners working in the dark underground changes to the now demolished Westoe Colliery Tower with dust still blowing up into the air. Finishing his pint, he gets up from the table and leaves the pub walking along a path towards a row of terraced houses. A group of school children play on a field or playground, a boy in a red school jumper walks past looking at the camera. A miner closes the coal yard gates at Westoe Colliery, the name of the mine written in iron on the gate itself. Taken from the Mining Review film seen at the start of the film an aerial of Westoe Colliery changing to the colliery following the demolition of its tower. Title: John Kennedy has now luckily acquired work with United Artists. He now sees a more settled future. Thousands of his fellow workers see nothing but hardship and the dole queue. Credit: Music played by the Westoe Colliery Brass Band Sound Ernest Moore Camera Terry Hartley P.A. Dennis Morgan Editors Stevan Frampton, Terry Hartley Narrator Joe Caffrey Directed by Stevan Frampton Produced by Steve Davies Title: Special thanks to Fiona Evans, Richard Lee, John Kennedy, Susan Mansoori and Claire Chandler Title: Technical support: Rosmany Crawson, Jes Benstock, John Overton, Graham Brown, Peter Dillion, Bob Davis, Susan Underwood, Susan Shearman, Kevin Fay Title: A Shaft Production © 1994 End title: EMS. European Media School