The Blackhill Campaign

The Blackhill Campaign

It is a moving account of the poignant events stemming from the National Coal Board's abrupt 1958 decision to close 36 pits, including Blackhill in Northumberland.  This led to a heroic battle by the Blackhill miners – fully supported by the citizens of Scremerston and Berwick-on-Tweed –to save their pit, their livelihoods, and their village, which could provide almost no other jobs. The combined forces of the NCB, the miners' union, and the government, eventually proved too much for them and Blackhill was destroyed.

However, nothing daunted, they went on to win a private licence to salvage and operate an old drift mine, abandoned to flooding 50 years earlier. The film was produced, written, directed and edited by Jack Parsons between 1958 and 1964. At its premiere at the National Film Theatre in London, it won some quite respectable reviews, But after some 10 years on release things quietened down and Jack Parsons heard little of it for three decades.

Then, in autumn 2004, after a three and a half year search, Dr Leo Enticknap, Director of the Northern Region Film & TV Archive, finally tracked down its maker with the only known surviving copy of the original 16mm version and this has now been professionally conserved, remastered, and copied into this DVD format.

'Told without affectation of any kind, this true tale of incomprehension, bitterness, wisdom, and ultimate compromise ... The Blackhill Campaign is informed by the slow and undeniable rhythm of truthfulness.'

(Michael Radcliffe. Films and Filming, March, 1964)

'Interesting and enjoyable ... a methodical record of this whole campaign ... its success is due to the film-maker's own deep concern ... which, from the start, involves the spectator, too.'
(David Robinson, ‘Sense of Purpose'. The Financial Times, 17/1/64)

A proud and angry account of the fight put up by the villagers.
Historians in a decade or so will be grateful to Mr Parsons.
This is documentary doing its true job, and doing it well.
(Philip Oakes. Sunday Telegraph, 19/1/64)

Jack Parsons' Blackhill Campaign seems to me a much more powerful and real thing to give audiences than the numbing second features pumped out to satisfy the alleged appetite of British filmgoers for routine dramas
(Penelope Gilliat. The Observer Weekend Review. 19/1/64)

Running Time Approximately 60 mins