Women in mining part 1

Women working in the pits - £1 a week pension - no injury pay. This really was the pits - sorting out jobbies from the coal. A fasinating insite into the life of women working in the pits. A low budget film, the criteria was that only women could film and produce this. Maggie Wright & Sarah McCloud produced the content and it was shown at The Lochgelly Centre with Lesley Riddoch praising the film. Due to technical difficulties, it ended up that Steve Wright re-edited the film using Ken Morse techniques.

This is a 28 minute documentary based on Lillian King's book "SAIR, SAIR WARK, WOMEN AND MINING IN SCOTLAND" describing the work of the hard-working women on the pithead - a job normally associated with men. Fife Fringe & Fife Council put the funding into the film.

Testimonies from some of the last women in Scotland to have worked in this industry examines their fears, joys, tears and camaraderie.

"Women In Mining" was a micro budget production which premiered at a Women in Mining Conference in Lochgelly Centre, Fife. Leslie Riddoch - Radio Scotland, Christine May - Fife Council, Helen Liddle, MSP and many others praised the quality of the production and the value of the oral traditions.

Lillian has written eight non fiction books and edited over twenty, including poetry, autobiography and Keepers and Seekers, a series of five children's books. She won the Writers News Robert Browning Centenary Poetry Competition and the Writers Association of Scotland Constable Trophy for an unpublished novel. You can purchased her books here http://www.windfallbooks.co.uk/alltitles.html

Another film by Maggie Wright is "Here We Go - Women Living The Strike" of 1984. We have clips of it, but due to the archival footage we can only show certain parts on YouTube. Available at www.tv2day.net

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• mining conditions
• Mining
• women working
• Lochgelly Centre
• Leslie Riddoch
• The Pits
• Mining Industry
• women in mining
• coal pits
• working the pits
• history of mining
• history
• Mining History
• Pithead Lassies
• Miners Union

[Dahlingable]

Even in the staes. Women;s families did not get paid if the women died or benefits. Check out Death of Coal Miner by Paula Cizmar. Also check out North Country,the movie which is based on both stories. A womean made a huge change for women working in the mines. Wonderful documentary.

[Aucht52]

Thanks VERY, VERY, much for posting this. It is fantastic and such an important part of Scottish history. Makes me homesick too.

[davidgrahamscott]

That's an interesting film but some of the sound on the interviews is a bit lost.