We looked at an old order book from the forge and were amazed at how many different kinds of shovel were made and the different places around the world they were exported to. Our favorite was a shovel specially designed for an expedition to dig up fossil dodo eggs in Madagascar.

This led to discussion about the many different places in the world that were once part of the British empire, the diversity of people who live there, and the many different things that a Bathgate-made spade might be used for.

This led to thoughts of hot places, tribal celebrations, dancing and drumming. Someone started to draw pictures that looked a bit like the simple figures in aborigine art. Caitlin (6) and Kirsten (7) drew many more of these jumping and dancing figures, but we eventually chose the figures drawn by Christopher (11) as the basis of our animation.

We then had to find a rhythm for them to dance to. The line shafting that drives the machines in the museum already makes a rhythmic clattering, so we decided to add to this by knocking and banging together some of the old spades in the museum. Jack (10) and Michael (6) proved particularly talented at bashing old shovels, and Robert (9) provided a great voice-over.

We thought that Ayres Rock, a big red hill in the Australian outback, would make and excellent background for the aborigine figures, then someone pointed out that we had our own big red hills in West Lothian, left behind by the shale oil industry. We therefore decided to use the Five Sisters bing as the skyline.

We scanned some of original graphics from old forge catalogues and used them in the advertisement, along with the original slogan; “Unrivalled for Finish, Durability & Cheapness.”