British Coal Lorries in the 1960s: The Lost Era of Coal Merchants

Before North Sea gas ever reached a British street, coal lorries were the last link in a chain that kept the whole nation warm. This documentary follows a South Yorkshire coal merchant's tipper lorry round in the 1960s — coal arriving by rail from a National Coal Board colliery, sacked by hand, and carried door to door through terraced streets by a driver and his mate. Discover how Britain's coal lorries and coal merchants supplied millions of homes, gasworks, and small industry across Yorkshire, the Midlands, South Wales, and the North East — and how the arrival of North Sea gas in the 1970s brought this entire trade to a quiet, largely unrecorded end. From the colliery headstock to the household coal-hole, this is the real, physically gruelling story behind Britain's coal haulage history. #CoalLorries #BritishHaulage #NationalCoalBoard #ClassicLorries #TruckingHistory