‘Burning bings’: a study of pollution management in mid-twentieth century Britain

Abstract

The paper consciously ranges beyond the major legislative ‘milestones’ of increasing environmental concern to focus on the circumstances in which the Public Health (Coal Mine Refuse) Bills of 1939 were promoted and enacted, as an illustration of the range of strategies deployed by central and local government, and trade associations, in allaying criticisms of the effects of atmospheric pollution. ‘Bing’ is a Nordic word meaning heap, often used to describe the spoil left by mineral working. There was increasing protest in the 1930s as to the damage caused to public health and amenity by the spontaneous combustion of such colliery wastes. The knowledge and understanding gained by the ‘expert’ Alkali Inspectorate in extinguishing and preventing such fires enabled ministers to claim an ‘administrative’ response would suffice, namely of working with industry in curbing such pollution. Members of Parliament and local authorities, exploiting such local instances as the ‘burning bing’ of the Cardowan Colliery, pressed for legislation. It required an exogenous factor, namely the civil-defence precautions taken against enemy bombers, to force industrial interests to concede, at least temporarily, the feasibility of more comprehensive action in suppressing and preventing such fires. Post-war technological advances enabled such concession to become permanent. Beyond the immediate improvement to the physical environment, such mid-century experience caused an increasing array of interests to engage with issues that came closely to be associated with ‘an environmental revolution’ around 1970.