200 YEARS OF COAL ETC.
“Meanwhile – out at sea off Blackhall Colliery there’s work to be done… Already this particular tower has proved supplies of coal which could extend the life of the Durham coal field by two hundred years.” So says the voice-over man from what I think was Pathe news.
I’m watching it in a film called Double Vision: Boxing for Hartlepool, made in 1986 by Amber films – the much respected social documentary film makers based in Newcastle.
It’s necessary to understand a little about the history of the surrounding pit villages of this part of the world if you are to get to grips with what made, and to some extent, still makes the place tick. The film may be a little too self conscious for my taste but it makes some telling points. In particular Ray Stubbs, playing the cynical journalist who is writing an article about George Bowes, local ex-collier and all round local boxing hero says:
“it’s like your town – might have been – could have been the greatest seaport in Europe – had everything going for it…When you’ve done everything to deserve success and it’s denied, it’s like the hope never dies of being champion. He’s holding onto it…keeping it alive.”
There is definitely a sense in Hartlepool of the underdog having something important to say. But they don’t shout it. They say it in a surprisingly quiet way. If you don’t know the place it seems to have no heart. It seems to be a bit here and a bit there. Even the geography means that the town is split into two – the headland (old Hartlepool) and across the water what was formerly called West Hartlepool is now the town itself.
I had contacted Amber Films to ask if they had any archive film footage of collieries along the coast – hence watching the film. I’m not sure on reflection what having some footage of a local colliery would do for me. It’s more about a general attitude that the place has evolved really I’m thinking… and that extends to the way the project is developing.
I am finding that connections come at me from directions that I hadn’t expected. There is no linear way through what I am collecting. I find myself going over this in the dark sometimes, laying in bed trying to make it all come together. I have to have some idea of structure… but there are many paths through these partial pieces of history (that was to some extent always my point anyway).. so I just need to decide which path I’m taking.
When I first started this piece I thought shipbuilding would have been quite central. As it turns out that is less so. It is definitely about people merging and meeting though. There is the ‘I met my wife or husband there’ element, but there is also the ‘they came from out of town’.. or ‘we weren’t allowed to go there because’…elements. There is also a certain amount of class consideration, though again not as much as I might have expected.
These days Hartlepool has what most towns have; a Morrisions, Asda, Boots. A Marks and Spencer, a Burger King etc. etc. but because of the odd backwater nature of the place it doesn’t quite seem to have been fully remodelled by this development. Even the relatively new marina doesn’t seem to get much of a mention in day to day conversation. The fractured nature of the place seems to have prevented its total absorption into the more common contemporary ‘city out of a box’ style and instead lives in a space between ‘now’ and ‘then’. I quite like that, even if it’s probably not what a politician would want to hear.
I was discussing these issues with a friend of mine. He was of the opinion that I should politicise my attitude to the place. I explained one of my planned shots. The camera moves high above where the Rink ballroom used to be and looks over the landscape across the town and towards the sea.
“I’m not sure you need to say any more than that” I said.
