‘Real Fire’ Commission, 1984

This selection of photographs included here is one of five photographic projects commissioned by the Solid Fuel Advisory Service (SFAS) in conjunction with Yorkshire Arts Association and Humberside College of Art. The SFAS represented all aspects of the solid fuel industry ranging from the production and distribution of smokeless fuel to the manufacture of smokeless fuel burning appliances. This work was commissioned in late 1983, the photographs were taken during February, March and April 1984.

My chosen brief was to photograph workers employed in the solid fuel industry and the associated industries in South Yorkshire. My particular interest was to record the working and environmental conditions of both blue colour and white colour workers, in particular the external and interior work spaces people inhabit and personalise throughout their working lives.

Environments included are the heavy manual work of the day and nightshift workers at the Bolsover and Grimethorpe Coalite plants, the open landscapes of the solid fuel storage and distribution depots at Mexborough, the sales staff at Firecraft Warming Centre and Tile Warehouse, Doncaster, the managerial office workers and manufacturing staff at Trianco Redfyrn, Sheffield.

Coalite was a smokeless fuel that was developed during the late 1930’s to reduce smoke pollution caused from burning coal in domestic home fires. The plant at Bolsover opened in 1937 and closed in 2004, at its height it employed over 1200 men and was the largest plant of its type in the world.

As natural gas became a cheaper and cleaner alternative to burning solid fuel during the 1980’s, so the demand for smokeless fuel fell. The Grimethorpe Coalite plant which had opened in 1938 closed in 1994. In a region already devastated by the decline in coal mining, the closure of Bolsover and Grimethorpe Coalite plants further destabilised the fractured local economies and communities.

Chemicals produced as a by-product from the Coalite plant in Bolsover were used to make ‘Agent Orange’, a herbicide and defoliant used as part of the USA chemical warfare programme in Vietnam War between 1961-1971. Its controversial use has been well documented.

Today regeneration projects have transformed these communities, new link roads connect distribution centres and industrial units to the national motorway network and new private housing estates have replaced the social housing from the late19th and 20th centuries.

This work was exhibited at the Impressions Gallery, York and Humberside College of Art, Hull during 1984. A selection of those images from that exhibition can be seen here.

These photographs were taken using a Nikon F3 camera and Metz 45 CT-1 flashgun.

[RF 001] Lorenzo Marchetta is a nightshift scannerman at The Derbyshire Bolsover Coalite Co Ltd. Lorenzo together with other Coalite workers were recruited en masse from impoverished rural villages in southern Italy during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

[RF 002] Nightshift workers at the Bolsover Coalite plant.

[RF 003] Sulphurous fumes envelop a nightshift Coalite worker inspecting one of eight large air sealed ovens called ‘batteries’. Grimethorpe Coalite plant.

[RF 004] A nightshift Coalite worker breaks up ash deposits with an iron bar which have formed at the base of one of the batteries. Grimethorpe Coalite plant.

[RF 005] Michel Stoddard (r) is a nightshift boiler ash man and Steve Arthur (l) a nightshift fitter. Bolsover Coalite plant. #1

[RF 006] Michel Stoddard (l) is a nightshift boiler ash man and Steve Arthur (r) is a nightshift fitter. Bolsover Coalite plant. #2

[RF 007] Nightshift maintenance workers, Bolsover Coalite plant.

[RF 008] Worker washing down a coal oil spill at the Bolsover Coalite plant.

[RF 009] General labourer at the Bolsover Coalite plant.

[RF 010] Roger Williams age 17 is an apprentice wielder at Grimethorpe Coalite plant.

[RF 011] Paul Moore is a technical assistant at Bolsover Coalite plant.

[RF 012] Karen Wagstaff is a quality control clerk at Bolsover Coalite plant.

[RF 013] Tony Bailey & Alastair Hamill await their 12 o’clock appointment. They are visiting sales representatives from Gulf Oil. Grimethorpe Coalite plant.

[RF 014] General labourers at Manvers Coal Distribution Depot, Mexborough.

[RF 015] 8am. Nigel and Steve known as ‘Mr Shifter and Mate’, are coal merchants preparing to ‘bag up’ from coal hoppers at Manvers Coal Distribution Depot, Mexborough.

[RF 016] 8am. Nigel and Steve, coal merchants at Manvers Coal Distribution Depot, Mexborough.

[RF 017] Loading Coal. Manvers Coal Distribution Depot, Mexborough. #1

[RF 018] Loading Coal. Manvers Coal Distribution Depot, Mexborough. #2

[RF 019] Steve Scott is a YTS trainee warehouseman at Fire Craft House Warming and Tile Centre, Doncaster. He later left to join the army.

[RF 020] Ruth Barnes. Age 20 is a showroom assistant at Fire Craft House Warming and Tile Centre Doncaster.

[RF 021] Spraying solid fuel boilers at Trianco Redfyre Ltd. Sheffield. Trianco Redfyre Ltd is a leading heating product manufacturer, specialising in stoves and boilers.

[RF 022] Rita Wagstaff. Assembly Shop Inspector, Trianco Redfyre Ltd, Sheffield. The newspaper cutting is of Richard Chamberlain, from the popular TV series ‘The Thorn Birds’.

[RF 023] Janet Bradley, Canteen General Assistant. Trianco Redfyre Ltd. Sheffield.

[RF 024] Assembly Line Production Assistant. Trianco Redfyre Ltd. Sheffield.

[RF 025] Peter Bowler, Senior Foreman. Trianco Redfyre Ltd. Sheffield.

[RF 026] Joe Stacey, General Works Manager, Trianco Redfyre Ltd, Sheffield.

[RF 027] Office Manager. Trianco Redfyre Ltd, Sheffield.

[RF 028] Office manager. Trianco Redfyre Ltd. Sheffield.

[RF 029] Office manager. Trianco Redfyre Ltd. Sheffield.

[RF 030] Poster for the ‘Real Fire’ exhibition at the Impressions Gallery, York. May 5th – June 2nd 1984.