1.
John Ford
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John Ford was an American film director. His four Academy Awards for Best Director remain a record, one of the films for which he won the award, How Green Was My Valley, also won Best Picture. In a career spanned more than 50 years, Ford directed more than 140 films and he is widely regarded as one of the most important. Fords work was held in regard by his colleagues, with Orson Welles. Ford made frequent use of shooting and long shots, in which his characters were framed against a vast, harsh. Ford was born John Martin Jack Feeney in Cape Elizabeth, Maine to John Augustine Feeney and Barbara Abbey Curran and his father, John Augustine, was born in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland in 1854. Barbara Curran had been born in the Aran Islands, in the town of Kilronan on the island of Inishmore, John A. Feeneys grandmother, Barbara Morris, was said to be a member of a local gentry family, the Morrises of Spiddal. John Augustine and Barbara Curran arrived in Boston and Portland respectively in May and they married in 1875 and became American citizens five years later on September 11,1880. John Augustine lived in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine with his family, and would try farming, fishing, working for the gas company, running a saloon, and being an alderman. Feeney attended Portland High School, Portland, Maine, where he was a successful fullback and he earned the nickname Bull because of the way he would lower his helmet and charge the line. A Portland pub is named Bull Feeneys in his honor and he later moved to California and in 1914 began working in film production as well as acting for his older brother Francis, adopting Jack Ford as a professional name. In addition to credited roles, he appeared uncredited as a Klansman in D. W. Griffiths 1915 The Birth of a Nation and he married Mary McBride Smith on July 3,1920, and they had two children. His daughter Barbara was married to singer and actor Ken Curtis from 1952 to 1964, what difficulty was caused by the two marrying is unclear as the level of John Fords commitment to the Catholic faith is disputed. A strain would have been Fords many extramarital relationships, John Ford began his career in film after moving to California in July 1914. He followed in the footsteps of his older brother Francis Ford, twelve years his senior. John Ford started out in his brothers films as an assistant, handyman, stuntman and occasional actor, frequently doubling for his brother, Francis gave his younger brother his first acting role in The Mysterious Rose. Despite an often combative relationship, within three years Jack had progressed to become Francis chief assistant and often worked as his cameraman, by the time Jack Ford was given his first break as a director, Francis profile was declining and he ceased working as a director soon after. One notable feature of John Fords films is that he used a company of actors
2.
Maureen O'Hara
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Maureen OHara was an Irish-born American actress and singer. The famously red-headed OHara was known for her beauty and playing fiercely passionate but sensible heroines, often in westerns and she worked on numerous occasions with director John Ford and longtime friend John Wayne, and was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. OHara grew up in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh to an eccentric devout Catholic family and she trained with the Rathmines Theatre Company from the age of 10 and at the Abbey Theatre from the age of 14. She was given a screen test, which was deemed unsatisfactory and she moved to Hollywood the same year to appear with him in the production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and was given a contract by RKO Pictures. OHara gained a reputation in Hollywood for bossiness and prudishness, avoiding the partying lifestyle, OHara made her first film with Wayne, the actor with whom she is most closely associated, with Rio Grande. This was followed by The Quiet Man, her best-known film, such was her strong chemistry with Wayne that many assumed they were married or in a relationship. In the 1960s OHara increasingly turned to more roles as she aged, appearing in films such as The Deadly Companions, The Parent Trap. She retired from the industry in 1971 after starring with Wayne one final time in Big Jake and she was married three times, and had one daughter, Bronwyn, born in 1944 to her second husband. Her autobiography, Tis Herself, was published in 2004 and became a New York Times Bestseller, born on 17 August 1920, OHara began life as Maureen FitzSimons on Beechwood Avenue in the Dublin suburb of Ranelagh. She states that she was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could have hoped for. OHara was the second oldest of six children of Charles and Marguerite FitzSimons, and her father was in the clothing business and bought into Shamrock Rovers Football Club, a team OHara supported from childhood. OHara noted that whenever her mother left the house, men would leave their houses just so they could catch a glimpse of her in the street, OHaras siblings were Peggy, the oldest, and younger Charles, Florrie, Margot, and Jimmy. Peggy dedicated her life to an order, becoming a Sister of Charity. OHara earned the nickname Baby Elephant for being a pudgy infant, a tomboy, she enjoyed fishing in the River Dodder, riding horses, swimming and Gaelic football, and would play boys games and climb trees. OHara was so keen on Gaelic football that at one point she pressed her father to found a team, and professed that Glenmalure Park. She enjoyed fighting, and trained in judo as a teenager and she later admitted that she displayed a jealousy towards boys in her youth and the freedom they had, and that they could steal apples from orchards and not get into trouble. OHara first attended the John Street West Girls School near Thomas Street in Dublins Liberties Area and her enthusiastic family fully supported the idea. When she recited a poem on stage in school at the age of six, from that age she trained in drama, music and dance along with her siblings at the Ena Mary Burke School of Drama and Elocution in Dublin
3.
Roddy McDowall
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Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall, known as Roddy McDowall, was an English-American actor, voice artist, film director and photographer. He is best known for portraying Cornelius and Caesar in the original Planet of the Apes film series and he began his acting career as a child in England, and then in the United States, in How Green Was My Valley, My Friend Flicka and Lassie Come Home. As an adult, McDowall appeared most frequently as an actor on radio, stage, film. For portraying Augustus in the historical drama Cleopatra, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, other titles include The Longest Day, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Inside Daisy Clover, That Darn Cat. Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Poseidon Adventure, Funny Lady, The Black Hole, Class of 1984, both of his parents were enthusiastic about the theatre. He and his sister, Virginia, were raised in their mothers Catholic faith. He attended St. Josephs College, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, appearing as a child model as a baby, McDowall appeared in several British films as a boy. After winning a prize in a school play at age nine. He then appeared in films starring comedians George Formby and Will Hay and his family moved to the United States in 1940 after the outbreak of World War II. McDowall became a naturalized United States citizen on 9 December 1949 and he made his first well-known film appearance at the age of 12, playing Huw Morgan in How Green Was My Valley, where he met and became lifelong friends with Maureen OHara. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and made him a household name and he starred in Lassie Come Home, a film that introduced an actress who would become another lifelong friend, Elizabeth Taylor. That same year, he appeared as Ken McLaughlin in My Friend Flicka, in 1944, exhibitors voted him the number one star of tomorrow. McDowall continued his career successfully into adulthood, by the mid-1940s, released from his studio contract, McDowall turned to the theater, taking the title role of Young Woodley in 1946 in a summer stock production in Westport, Connecticut. In 1947, he played Malcolm in Orson Welless stage production of Macbeth in Salt Lake City, Utah and he then appeared in several roles for Monogram Pictures, a low-budget studio that welcomed established stars. He performed in heavy makeup as various characters in four of the Planet of the Apes films. During one guest appearance on The Carol Burnett Show, he came onstage in his Planet of the Apes makeup, other films in which he appeared include It. The Poseidon Adventure, The Legend of Hell House, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, McDowall appeared frequently on Hollywood Squares and occasionally came up with quips himself. He played the rebel scientist Dr. Jonathan Willoway in the 1970s science fiction TV series and he had a substantial role in the miniseries version of Ray Bradburys The Martian Chronicles
4.
20th Century Fox
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Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation is an American film studio currently owned by 21st Century Fox. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios and is located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, the studio was formerly owned by News Corporation. 20th Century Fox is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America, in 2015, 20th Century Fox celebrated its 80th anniversary as a studio. Spyros Skouras, then manager of the Fox West Coast Theaters, the studios biggest star, Will Rogers, died in a plane crash weeks after the merger. Its leading female star, Janet Gaynor, was fading in popularity and promising leading men James Dunn, at first, it was expected that the new company was originally to be called Fox-20th Century, even though 20th Century was the senior partner in the merger. However, 20th Century brought more to the bargaining table besides Schenck and Zanuck, the new company, 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, began trading on May 31,1935, the hyphen was dropped in 1985. Schenck became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Kent remained as President, Zanuck became Vice President in Charge of Production, replacing Foxs longtime production chief Winfield Sheehan. The company established a training school. The contracts included an option for renewal for as long as seven years. For many years, 20th Century Fox claimed to have founded in 1915. For instance, it marked 1945 as its 30th anniversary, however, in recent years it has claimed the 1935 merger as its founding, even though most film historians agree it was founded in 1915. The companys films retained the 20th Century Pictures searchlight logo on their credits as well as its opening fanfare. Also on the Fox payroll he found two players who he built up into the studios leading assets, Alice Faye and seven-year-old Shirley Temple, favoring popular biographies and musicals, Zanuck built Fox back to profitability. Thanks to record attendance during World War II, Fox overtook RKO, while Zanuck went off for eighteen months war service, junior partner William Goetz kept profits high by going for light entertainment. The studios—indeed the industrys—biggest star was creamy blonde Betty Grable, in 1942, Spyros Skouras succeeded Kent as president of the studio. Together with Zanuck, who returned in 1943, they intended to make Foxs output more serious-minded. During the next few years, with pictures like The Razors Edge, Wilson, Gentlemans Agreement, The Snake Pit, Boomerang, and Pinky, Zanuck established a reputation for provocative, adult films. Fox also specialized in adaptations of best-selling books such as Ben Ames Williams Leave Her to Heaven, starring Gene Tierney and they also made the 1958 film version of South Pacific
5.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
6.
Citizen Kane
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Citizen Kane is a 1941 American mystery drama film by Orson Welles, its producer, co-screenwriter, director and star. The picture was Welless first feature film, nominated for Academy Awards in nine categories, it won an Academy Award for Best Writing by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles. It topped the American Film Institutes 100 Years,100 Movies list in 1998, as well as its 2007 update. Citizen Kane is particularly praised for its cinematography, music, and narrative structure, upon its release, Hearst prohibited mention of the film in any of his newspapers. Kanes career in the world is born of idealistic social service. Narrated principally through flashbacks, the story is told through the research of a reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper magnates dying word. After the Broadway successes of Welless Mercury Theatre and the controversial 1938 radio broadcast The War of the Worlds on The Mercury Theatre on the Air and he signed a contract with RKO Pictures in 1939. Unusually for a director, he was given the freedom to develop his own story, to use his own cast and crew. Following two abortive attempts to get a project off the ground, he wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane, principal photography took place in 1940 and the film received its American release in 1941. While a critical success, Citizen Kane failed to recoup its costs at the box office, the film faded from view after its release but was subsequently returned to the publics attention when it was praised by such French critics as André Bazin and given an American revival in 1956. The film was released on Blu-ray on September 13,2011, in a mansion in Xanadu, a vast palatial estate in Florida, the elderly Charles Foster Kane is on his deathbed. Holding a snow globe, he utters a word, Rosebud, and dies, a newsreel obituary tells the life story of Kane, an enormously wealthy newspaper publisher. Kanes death becomes sensational news around the world, and the newsreels producer tasks reporter Jerry Thompson with discovering the meaning of Rosebud, Thompson sets out to interview Kanes friends and associates. He approaches Kanes second wife, Susan Alexander Kane, now an alcoholic who runs her own nightclub, Thompson goes to the private archive of the late banker Walter Parks Thatcher. Through Thatchers written memoirs, Thompson learns that Kanes childhood began in poverty in Colorado, in 1871, after a gold mine was discovered on her property, Kanes mother Mary Kane sends Charles away to live with Thatcher so that he would be properly educated. While Thatcher and Charles parents discuss arrangements inside, the young Kane plays happily with a sled in the snow outside his parents boarding-house and protests being sent to live with Thatcher. Years later, after gaining control over his trust fund at the age of 25, Kane enters the newspaper business. He takes control of the New York Inquirer and starts publishing scandalous articles that attack Thatchers business interests, after the stock market crash in 1929, Kane is forced to sell controlling interest of his newspaper empire to Thatcher
7.
Academy Award for Best Director
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The Academy Award for Best Director is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of a director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry. However, these categories were merged for all subsequent ceremonies, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the directors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. For the first eleven years of the Academy Awards, directors were allowed to be nominated for multiple films in the same year, the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture have been very closely linked throughout their history. Of the 89 films that have been awarded Best Picture,63 have also been awarded Best Director, since its inception, the award has been given to 69 directors or directing teams. John Ford has received the most awards in this category with four, william Wyler was nominated on twelve occasions, more than any other individual. As of the 2017 ceremony, Damien Chazelle is the most recent winner in category for his work on La La Land. Chazelle also became the youngest director in history to receive this award, two directing teams have shared the award, Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story in 1961 and Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men in 2007. The Coen brothers are the siblings to have won the award. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31, for the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1,1932 to December 31,1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full calendar year from January 1 to December 31. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com
8.
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
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The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered a performance in a supporting role while working within the film industry. At the 9th Academy Awards ceremony held in 1937, Walter Brennan was the first winner of award for his role in Come. Initially, winners in both supporting acting categories were awarded instead of statuettes. Beginning with the 16th ceremony held in 1944, however, winners received full-sized statuettes, currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS, winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. Since its inception, the award has given to 72 actors. Brennan has received the most awards in this category with three awards, Brennan, Jeff Bridges, Robert Duvall, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Nicholson, and Claude Rains were nominated on four occasions, more than any other actor. As of the 2017 ceremony, Mahershala Ali is the most recent winner in category for his role as Juan in Moonlight. In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of release in Los Angeles County. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-1-55002-574-3. org The Academy Awards Database Oscar. com Complete Downloadable List of Academy Award Nominees
9.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
10.
National Film Registry
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The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Boards selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The NFPB, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992,1996,2005, and again in October 2008. The NFPBs mission, to which the NFR contributes, is to ensure the survival, conservation, the 1996 law also created the non-profit National Film Preservation Foundation which, although affiliated with the NFPB, raises money from the private sector. To be eligible for inclusion, a film must be at least ten years old, for the first selection in 1989, the public nominated almost 1,000 films for consideration. Members of the NFPB then developed individual ballots of possible films for inclusion, the ballots were tabulated into a list of 25 films which was then modified by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and his staff at the Library for the final selection. Since 1997, members of the public have been able to nominate up to 50 films a year for the NFPB, the NFR includes films ranging from Hollywood classics to orphan films. A film is not required to be feature-length, nor is it required to have been released in the traditional sense. As of the 2016 listing, there are 700 films preserved in the Registry, currently, the earliest listed film is Newark Athlete, and the most recent is 13 Lakes. Counting the 11 multi-year serials in the NFR once each by year of completion, the years with the most films selected are 1928,1939, the time between a films debut and its selection varies greatly. The longest span is 119 years, Newark Athlete was originally released in 1891, the shortest span is the minimum 10 years, this distinction is shared by Raging Bull, Do the Right Thing, Goodfellas, Toy Story, Fargo and 13 Lakes. For purposes of this list, multi-year serials are counted once by year of completion
11.
Library of Congress
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The Library of Congress is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, the Library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D. C. it also maintains the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, which houses the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center. The Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world and its collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 450 languages. Two-thirds of the books it acquires each year are in other than English. The Library of Congress moved to Washington in 1800, after sitting for years in the temporary national capitals of New York. John J. Beckley, who became the first Librarian of Congress, was two dollars per day and was required to also serve as the Clerk of the House of Representatives. The small Congressional Library was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century until the early 1890s, most of the original collection had been destroyed by the British in 1814, during the War of 1812. To restore its collection in 1815, the bought from former president Thomas Jefferson his entire personal collection of 6,487 books. After a period of growth, another fire struck the Library in its Capitol chambers in 1851, again destroying a large amount of the collection. The Library received the right of transference of all copyrighted works to have two copies deposited of books, maps, illustrations and diagrams printed in the United States. It also began to build its collections of British and other European works and it included several stories built underground of steel and cast iron stacks. Although the Library is open to the public, only high-ranking government officials may check out books, the Library promotes literacy and American literature through projects such as the American Folklife Center, American Memory, Center for the Book, and Poet Laureate. James Madison is credited with the idea for creating a congressional library, part of the legislation appropriated $5,000 for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress. And for fitting up an apartment for containing them. Books were ordered from London and the collection, consisting of 740 books and 3 maps, was housed in the new Capitol, as president, Thomas Jefferson played an important role in establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The new law also extended to the president and vice president the ability to borrow books and these volumes had been left in the Senate wing of the Capitol. One of the only congressional volumes to have survived was a government account book of receipts and it was taken as a souvenir by a British Commander whose family later returned it to the United States government in 1940. Within a month, former president Jefferson offered to sell his library as a replacement
12.
Spoil tip
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A spoil tip is a pile built of accumulated spoil – the overburden or other waste rock removed during coal and ore mining. These waste materials are composed of shale, as well as smaller quantities of carboniferous sandstone. Spoil tips are not formed of slag, but in areas they are referred to as slag heaps. The term spoil is also used to refer to material removed when digging a foundation, tunnel, such material may be ordinary soil and rocks, or may be heavily contaminated with chemical waste, determining how it may be disposed of. Clean spoil may be used for land reclamation, Spoil is distinct from tailings, which is the processed material that remains after the valuable components have been extracted from ore. Spoil tips may be conical in shape, and can appear as conspicuous features of the landscape, or they may be much flatter and eroded, especially if vegetation has established itself. In Loos-en-Gohelle, in the mining area of Pas-de-Calais, France, are a series of five, very perfect cones. Spoil tips sometimes grew to millions of tons, and, having been abandoned and they trap solar heat, making it difficult for vegetation to take root, this encourages erosion and creates dangerous, unstable slopes. Existing techniques for regreening spoil tips include the use of geotextiles to control erosion as the site is resoiled, the piles also create acid rock drainage, which pollutes streams and rivers. In some coal mining districts, such fires were considered normal, such fires can follow slow combustion of residual hydrocarbons. Their extinction can require complete encasement, which can prove impossible for technical and financial reasons, sprinkling is generally ineffective and injecting water under pressure counter-productive, because it carries oxygen, bringing the risk of explosion. The perceived weak environmental and public impact of these fires leads generally to waiting for their natural extinction. With spoil tips there is a danger of landslip, an example was the Aberfan disaster in Wales 1966, in which a total 144 people were killed,116 of whom were school children, mostly between the ages of 7 and 10. Five teachers also died in the accident, in February 2013, a spoil tip was the cause of a landslip which caused the closure of the Scunthorpe to Doncaster railway line while repairs were carried out. Several techniques of re-utilising the spoil tips exist, usually including either geotechnics or recycling, most commonly, old spoil tips are partially revegetated to provide valuable green spaces since they are inappropriate for building purposes. At Nœux-les-Mines, a ski slope has been constructed on the tip. If spoil tips are considered to contain sufficient amounts of residual material, the oldest coal-based spoil tips may still contain enough coal to begin spontaneous slow combustion. This results in a form of vitrification of the shale, which then acquires sufficient mechanical strength to be of use in road construction, some can therefore have a new life in being thus exploited, for example, the flattened pile of residue from the 11/19 site of Loos-en-Gohelle
