Mining life captured on film

Recordings of mining life will be shown in the film

Unseen footage of coal miners at work will be featured in a film about what life was like down the pits of south Wales.

Arts Magic, the Ebbw Vale-based firm behind the project, has collected a number of homemade films from former pit workers.

The recordings will be the highlight of a 50-minute film about what life was like for the thousands of workers who mined the coal faces throughout the south Wales Valleys.

Former miners will also be featured recounting stories about their experiences during their time spent working in the collieries.

It is really amazing to see some of the footage we have been given for use in the film

Kevin Phillips, Arts Magic

Kevin Phillips, who is making the film, said that a number of people have come forward with films.

"We have got hundreds of still pictures which have been loaned to us, but it is quite hard to come by moving pictures," he said.

"It is really amazing to see some of the footage we have been given for use in the film.

"It is such a great idea to do this film to stop it all being lost in history," he said.

One of the recordings handed in shows the pulling down of Marine Colliery, in Cwm.

"Some much older footage between the 1930s and 1940s has been gathered by our local archivist," said Mr Phillips.

"Most of what we have is still being processed but we have started going though the old photographs given to use by old miners which spans the last century.

Former miners will tell their stories

"It will all be kept as archive, to feed future generations historic knowledge, which otherwise maybe lost forever," he added.

Tyrone O'Sullivan the chairman of Tower Colliery near Hirwaun - the only worker-owned coal mine in Europe welcomed the making of the film.

"I think we should be doing much more about our history," he said.

"It was an exciting era and we don't do enough about it.

"Seeing real film about what it was like will be far more striking and honest.

"But I hope that it is done properly - the miners strike in the 1980s was an exciting era - it was a huge battle for the right to work.

"Two cultures opposing each other, the mining culture who wanted jobs and community against Thatcher who said that coal was too expensive.

"I just hope that mining life is captured in the way it really was," he added.