Last Shift (1976)
Starting with the workers’ discussion of the future of factory horse, the documentary records a handmade brickworks in Swalwell on the south bank of the Tyne.
Adamsez, the well known bathroom ware manufacturers, went out of business in 1975. One of the casualties of the closure was a small self-contained operation housed in an ancient collection of buildings in Swalwell-on-Tyne, where a handful of men produced high quality refractory bricks in a process untouched by the industrial revolution. Amber was advised on the importance of recording the disappearing work places by Tyneside industrial historian Stafford Linsley. The brickworks having just closed and the owners either unaware or unconcerned, Amber employed the workers for a further week so that the processes could be documented.
Amber Films, 17 mins, 1976
Watch an excerpt
