Shildon Railway Institute is to host a special screening of a recently released documentary film about the mining communities of County Durham, presented by two of it’s makers, Mark Thorburn and Marie Gardiner of Lonely Tower Film and Media. Entitled ‘Hollowed Ground – The People of the Durham Coalfield‘, the film explores local identity across our region, how this was influenced by the coal industry that caused so many pit towns and villages to explode into being and the resilience and determination of those communities through the adversity of the decline of coal mining.
Lonely Tower, based in the North-East, was formed on the back of experience in broadcast media and came together as a company through a shared passion for story telling and historical documentary making. Since forming they have created several successful and engaging documentaries, including ‘A Passion for Vaux’, documenting the rise, fall and subsequent rebirth of the famous Sunderland brewing brand.
Marie and Mark are mid-way through a limited tour of screenings in towns around the region with this latest film, it’s release timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the 1984 miners strike and 30 years since the closure of County Durham’s last deep mine. They chose Shildon as a screening location partly due to having spent quite a bit of time here in the past two years shooting video for a forthcoming film ‘Iron and Steam – The Dawning of the Stockton & Darlington Railway‘ which is expected to be released later this year. It was also known to the couple as the birthplace of miner and renowned writer Sid Chaplin, after whom Shildon’s town library is named and whose son Michael is interviewed in the documentary.
The couple will offer an introductory talk before showing ‘Hollowed Ground’ which runs for 82 minutes and will offer the chance to be asked questions and discuss the film. Chair of the Institute, Dave Reynolds, said “We’re over the moon that Lonely Tower have chosen to show ‘Hollowed Ground‘ here. We sometimes forget that Shildon was as much a coal town as a rail town and many of our folk here are descended from miners that worked in collieries; Adelaide, Shildon Lodge, Shildon, West Durham Wallsend, Coppy Crooks, Brusselton or one of the others in the area. Even the railway history here owes its origins to the need for coal to travel through the town. The story of the coal mining communities of County Durham belongs to us as much as it does any of those towns that carried on mining after our pits closed.”
The special screening event takes place at 1:00pm on Saturday 4th May 2024 in the Main Hall at the Railway Institute on Redworth Road. There is a charge of £5. You can buy tickets in advance from the Institute or their website, or you can turn up and pay on the day (though places are limited).
South West Durham News covering news across County Durham.
