Oil well at T.B.Kirk's farm (Poplar Farm), Plungar, 1953

The Vale of Belvoir was surveyed for oil reserves during the post-WW2 years, and significant finds were reported at locations including this one at Plungar. There was media interest, and here a BBC cameraman and sound recordist are shooting an interview with a company geologist Harry Warman and an interviewer wearing a heavy overcoat and boots. On the right is a “nodding donkey” pump located on top of Plungar No.1 well. The location is a field on Poplar Farm, on the southern side of the village, where Tom Bonser Kirk was the farmer. Despite initial promise, little seems to have come of the venture. Some years later, the area was surveyed again, but this time for coal measures that were found to extend beneath the Vale. This very nearly did lead to development of a new mine with shafts at locations within the Vale, and only a concerted protest campaign coupled with mining problems encountered Asfordby mine brought the development to a halt.