Latest news with #PeterRichardson
BBC News
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Cult comedy screening to raise funds for Devon seawall repair
A special screening of a cult 80s comedy film is taking place to help raise funds to repair a 100-year-old Devon breakwater at Hope Cove Harbour, in South Devon, protects the beach at the seaside village but needs urgent work and if it is breached the sands could be washed 1985 film The Supergrass by the comedy group The Comic Strip features an iconic scene in which the late actor Robbie Coltrane marches along the breakwater in crashing director of the film, Peter Richardson, is holding an event showing a special 'Director's Cut' screening in nearby Marlborough to help raise funds for the repair work. 'Breakwater is crumbling' The breakwater was last repaired in 1983 but it has some big cracks and local residents are concerned that a breach in the wall could have a devastating impact on the village."If we lose the sand, we lose the harbour and that would be catastrophic for the village," said joint Harbourmaster Sean Hassall."We'll lose our tourism industry."The locals come down here as well so really we want to make people aware how crucial our breakwater is and how important it is to get the funding and get it sorted," he said. The benefit night, at Marlborough Village Hall, is designed to try to raise awareness of the breakwater as well as to raise money to support the repair work. "The breakwater is crumbling and we need to find some way to get it repaired and it costs money these days," said Mr Richardson. "They need to raise it [money] and that is why we are doing a charity benefit showing The Supergrass which features that scene with Robbie on the breakwater."'It's the 40th anniversary of the release of Supergrass so it seems like a good time to do something with it so I've recut it." The coastline is part of the Crown Estate and the harbour is leased by the Hope Cove Harbour harbour is self funding and raises money through mooring and launch fees. It is estimated the breakwater repairs will cost more than £1m. The Friends of Hope Cove Harbour is a charity trying to raise money for the repairs. So far they have accumulated £100,000. "We've had various experts look at it [the breakwater] in the past few years and it is going to go at some stage but nobody can give a date," said Graham Phillips, the chairman of the charity. "Before it goes we want to try to raise enough money to repair it in a substantial way because if it goes the beach will disappear."The Supergrass is due to be shown at Marlborough Village Hall on Saturday 15 March 2025.
BBC News
16-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Birkshead: What happens in the world's deepest gypsum mine?
Gypsum may be an unfamiliar name to many but we are surrounded by it every day. It is a mineral used to make types of plaster which coat our homes, schools and offices - and in Cumbria sits the world's deepest gypsum the small village of Long Marton, against the backdrop of the North Pennines, stands a bungalow in the corner of a field. It is perhaps the only clue that something else is happening close at a depth of 1,000 ft (305m), is Birkshead drift mine where a lengthy system of conveyor belts snakes its way from where the stone is mined to where it is treated."You've got to have your wits about you all the time, but I just feel at home down here," says shift manager Peter Richardson. "I'll probably miss it when I retire." The drift mine, near Appleby-in-Westmorland, sits under rolling farmland and supplies the raw materials to make plasterboard for the building industry, something it has been doing for almost 50 30ft (9m) high tunnels, wide enough for a Range Rover to drive through, are grey and there is a smell of dust in the air."With ceilings as high as they are you don't really feel like you're in a mine," says one of the workers. The underground road leading down to where the gypsum is extracted is steep and with sharp here say that without external contact there is no way of knowing what the weather is like outside. But while they are cut off, they are reminded of life continuing above them with the smell of freshly cut farmland grass making its way through the ventilation the reality of life underground is never too far away."If you're down a mine and your light fuses - which has happened to me in the past - it's not good," Mr Richardson says."Now we've got a little pen torch, just in case, whereas the old pitmen's lamps used to have a little bulb, but if your battery fused you were up the creek really." The mine has been here since 1977 and these days machines can cut through 3.3ft (1m) of gypsum per hour."It just peels it off," Mr Richardson belts then take thousands of tons of material a day to a factory in Kirkby Thore, operated by British machine that cuts the stone looks a little bit like a giant porcupine.A staff member sits in an air-conditioned cab so they are protected from the dust, which engulfs the tunnels when the machine only way to see what is happening is through monitors inside the cab. Some belts travel up to 3,300ft (1km) each but, as they roll back on themselves, they are double that in them is a "big undertaking," Mr Richardson says."We've got a few of the lads here who've done it a few times and you need them lads on the job - they know what they're doing."You have to clamp it up and chain it, you can't just cut the belt because of the tension on it."You'll end up with a concertinaed heap at the bottom." Safety is obviously a major focus and were things to go wrong there is a specially built room which has its own life support system and supplies of food and water. "If I had a vehicle fire and the tyres caught fire, there would be thick black smoke and you'd struggle to see, hence the strobes on there to guide you in," Mr Richardson would take about an hour to walk back to the surface from here, but he says he feels safe working at Birkshead."The fear factor just isn't there, you don't think about it."You're obviously aware of your surroundings and you check where you're going to be working."Dare I say it, you never take it for granted."Like the old saying from the coal miners: It's always the good roof that'll get you, not a bad roof because you've got that sorted." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Send your story ideas here.
