SEACOAL
Joe Smith on the beach:
I worked at the pit when I first left school
then I worked at the dog stadium
but this was a better job.
Youre your own boss you see
You could come when you want
and go home when you want.
Titles (super):
Laika Pictures
and
Reality Surgeons
present
SEACOAL
On separate card:
Lynemouth Bay, Northumberland
Joe Smith on the beach:
The pit tips just around the beach there the waste gets washed out and the coal comes out of it. Theres supposed to be no coal abandoned but there is 70 percent. A lot of people think it comes through the seams of the sea but it doesnt.
When the strike was on, you got a lot of coal until the heap got washed away. Then the coal just dwindled away. After the war you couldnt get coal. It all sat about on the beaches so people bought horses and bikes and one thing and another and theyd come down to get it for their own fire, their own house, to save money.
Ive seen five, six thousand tons of coal pulled off and there was plenty buying it. You couldnt pull the coal quick enough. These mornings its a beautiful job. It keeps you healthy. I started just after the war. It started just after the war, when they opened the beaches back up again. There was any amount of coal and coal was a good commodity then. Lulu Shes quiet. As long as theyre quiet. Im too old to run after these young ones. Shes nice and quiet.
Years ago it was a different job all together when theyre was a lot of people on. You used to go down through the night and that work through the night and in the winter
then you had the hard frost.
Eight years on the dunes and eighteen years here because they took us to High Court
to get us off the dunes. We were workers and were allowed to be on there for ninety-nine years until they build a site for us. So they built this. Which was a waste of money.
The government gave them I think it was three quarter of a million. My dad worked at the pit and this was just spare time because he could make better money in a day here then he could for a weeks work at the pit.
What about now, is it still a good business? You make a living. Not a lot of money. Now you see, its died out hadnt it? Everybody went onto gas, central heating and that.
Green houses are the main thing that buys it out. You can make a living
Old man on the beach:
There was eighty horses on the beach at one time. There was two thousand tons of coal
a weekend, pulled off. There was plenty of coal then. And it slowly disappeared?
Its since the pits closed you just gradually get less and less.
Theres only a handful now. Is there anyone young doing it? No just old codgers like us, the die-hards, old pensioners
Joe Smith on the beach:
I worked at the pit when I first left school
then I worked at the dog stadium
but this was a better job.
Youre your own boss you see
You could come when you want
and go home when you want.
Titles (super):
Laika Pictures
and
Reality Surgeons
present
SEACOAL
On separate card:
Lynemouth Bay, Northumberland
Joe Smith on the beach:
The pit tips just around the beach there the waste gets washed out and the coal comes out of it. Theres supposed to be no coal abandoned but there is 70 percent. A lot of people think it comes through the seams of the sea but it doesnt.
When the strike was on, you got a lot of coal until the heap got washed away. Then the coal just dwindled away. After the war you couldnt get coal. It all sat about on the beaches so people bought horses and bikes and one thing and another and theyd come down to get it for their own fire, their own house, to save money.
Ive seen five, six thousand tons of coal pulled off and there was plenty buying it. You couldnt pull the coal quick enough. These mornings its a beautiful job. It keeps you healthy. I started just after the war. It started just after the war, when they opened the beaches back up again. There was any amount of coal and coal was a good commodity then. Lulu Shes quiet. As long as theyre quiet. Im too old to run after these young ones. Shes nice and quiet.
Years ago it was a different job all together when theyre was a lot of people on. You used to go down through the night and that work through the night and in the winter
then you had the hard frost.
Eight years on the dunes and eighteen years here because they took us to High Court
to get us off the dunes. We were workers and were allowed to be on there for ninety-nine years until they build a site for us. So they built this. Which was a waste of money.
The government gave them I think it was three quarter of a million. My dad worked at the pit and this was just spare time because he could make better money in a day here then he could for a weeks work at the pit.
What about now, is it still a good business? You make a living. Not a lot of money. Now you see, its died out hadnt it? Everybody went onto gas, central heating and that.
Green houses are the main thing that buys it out. You can make a living
Old man on the beach:
There was eighty horses on the beach at one time. There was two thousand tons of coal
a weekend, pulled off. There was plenty of coal then. And it slowly disappeared?
Its since the pits closed you just gradually get less and less.
Theres only a handful now. Is there anyone young doing it? No just old codgers like us, the die-hards, old pensioners