601-620

601  HYDRAULIC SHOVEL
Lincoln area  1979
4.75 min  Colour  16mm  Mute
The RB 350H Shovel in action at a single un-named location, where it is seen lifting heavy rubble into a dumper.  Much of the footage is filmed from the same angle, with a few close ups in the second half.  Titles at start and end suggest it was meant for public showing (presumably by a salesman since it is without sound) but it seems more like unedited footage than a properly completed production.

602  THE 1260W  WALKING DRAGLINE
Heather (Leics)  1977
10.5 min  Colour  16mm  Sound
The country’s biggest walking dragline (designed in USA but built by Ruston Bucyrus in Lincoln) is assembled on a site in Leicester (just south of Ashby de la Zouche) to remove overburden and enable open cast coal mining by the National Coal Board.  Assembly from factory-built sub-assemblies took a year.  The bucket was so large the entire class of schoolchildren who attended the naming ceremony could sit in it at the same time.

603  RB’S LITTLE HONEY
Lincoln & Various  late 1970s
12.25 min  Colour  16mm  Sound
The Ruston Bucyrus 150RH hydraulic excavator is seen being assembled at Lincoln, then working on site at various UK locations.

Note:  The title and narration puns RB’s/Our Bees.

604  RB SHOVEL & DRAGLINES
Breedon (Leics) & Ranskill (Notts)  1952/3
8 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
The Ruston Bucyrus 19RB Shovel seen at work in a deep quarry at Breedon.  22 and 23 RB D/L draglines are then seen excavating at Ranskill.

605  RB DIGGER & LOADER
?  mid-1960s
4.5 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
The Ruston Bucyrus 3RB is seen digging a trench behind a residential area.  The 60S loader is at an un-named (USA?) quarry shovelling heavy rubble, and demonstrates what is clearly a novel design, with the shovel supported by twin booms, each with two parallel bracing arms.

606  DAYS OUT AT CLEETHORPES BEACH
Cleethorpes  c 1951
7.25 min  B/W  Std 8mm  Silent
Compilation of delightful family footage taken during regular visits to the beach, undramatic but full of social/historical interest: Cleethorpes Pier, picnics beside the family Austin 6, swimming in the sea and in the outdoor pool, cricket on the beach, and, amid high winds, a determined effort to brew coffee on a Primus stove, with everyone crammed into a small tent for shelter.

607  GRIMSBY SCENES
Grimsby  c 1951
4 min  B/W  Std 8mm  Silent
Suburban street scenes; the family shop with an ingenious moving advertising sign, clearly a great novelty at the time; children playing with a litter of new puppies; and scenes in the People’s Park with a toy boat being sailed on the pond.

608  SCOUT ACTIVITIES
Grimsby/Sutton Coldfield  c1950  & 1957
9 minutes  B/W & Colour  Std 8mm  Silent
The Chief Scout, Lord Rowallan, visits Scouts gathered from throughout the Grimsby area.  A big Fancy Dress parade with an Imperial theme follows, plus a few brief scenes of a St George’s Day parade through the streets of Grimsby.  Later, a party of senior scouts leaves the station for the Golden Jubilee Jamboree at Sutton Coldfield, some scenes at which are also included.

609  TULIP TIME
Spalding  c 1952
2 min  Colour  Std 8mm  Silent
Tulips growing in fields belonging to Groom Bros., followed by rare scenes of the recently opened show-gardens at Paul Hart’s Corner.

610  CLIPSHAM QUARRY
Clipsham (Nr Stamford)  1927
4 min  B/W  16mm  Silent
Medwell’s Quarry in Rutland, six miles north-east of Stamford, and renowned as a source of stone for architectural restoration.  After blasting to remove the hard surface stone, all the work of extraction, splitting and shaping the white limestone is done laboriously by hand, the only mechanical aids being a hand-turned crane for lifting, horse-drawn trucks running on Jubilee track for on-site transport, and a steam lorry.

611  GYMKHANA
Stamford area  c 1933
7 min  B/W  16mm  Silent
Held near Stamford, possibly at Wansford, an event jointly organised by a group of local Hunts such as the Cottesmore, the Blankney, etc.  Surprisingly, several of the young participants have no protective headgear of any kind apart from cloth caps.  All the usual Pony Club hazards: refusals, falls, a horse that doesn’t want to be mounted.  At the finish, family members gather to see the rosettes awarded.
A 3 min show version is available

612  STAMFORD MAYOR MAKING
Stamford  c 1934
4 min  B/W  16mm  Silent
Typical street parade, filmed from a single viewpoint, followed by a torchlight procession, fireworks and a dramatic bonfire.

613  INFIRMARY CARNIVAL 1939
Stamford  1939
21 min  B/W & Colour  16mm  Silent
Pre NHS, most local hospitals depended on voluntary fund raising events of this kind.  The Stamford Carnival always took place over the Whitsun Weekend.  In 1939, 15,000 people attended and over £1,000 was raised, a huge sum in its day.  Apart from the usual processions and side shows, notable features this year were a fancy-dress dog show, and the Leicestershire Yeomanry Sports in Burghley Park, including tent-peg sticking and a mock battle against ‘Arabs’.  The Carnival Queen was chosen by Lord Burghley and the comic actor Tom Walls, then at the height of his fame after a long-running series of farces at the Aldwych Theatre, London.
A 16 min show version (B & W only) is available

614  INFIRMARY CARNIVAL 1950
Stamford  1950
10 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
Some scenes of decorated floats, but most of the footage is devoted to displays by performing dogs, many in fancy dress.

615  WELLAND & GWASH FAUNISTIC SURVEY
Spalding & District  1950
4.25 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
Men in waders collect specimens and mud samples from the river bed for examination and analysis, to assess the general health of the waterway and check for any evidence of pollution.  Deviations from the expected numbers and types of larvae, etc, would be a warning sign.

616  OPENING OF CORONATION CHANNEL
Spalding  1953
10.5 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
Inauguration ceremony performed by Sir Thomas Dugdale, Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries, who formally opens the electrically operated sluice gates at Cowbit Road.  Also seen are Mr Alex West, Chairman of the Welland Drainage Board and the Board’s Chief Engineer Mr Taverner who designed and supervised the work.  The official party then board two barges and travel the entire two mile length of the waterway to Fulney, where Sir Thomas opens the Marsh Road sluice gates, allowing water to flow out into the main river.  He then makes a speech which is seen being filmed and recorded by the BBC.  [Concludes with similar material shot less successfully by a second cameraman.]
A 6.5 min show version is available

Note: Begun in 1950 following the disastrous 1947 floods, [see Acc No 022] the Spalding Flood Alleviation Bypass (later re-named the Coronation Channel) cost £1m and was internationally admired as a bold and innovative piece of civil engineering. 

617  FISHING MATCH
Spalding, Crowland  c 1957
3.5 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
Teams representing more than a hundred Angling clubs from all over the Midlands gather at Spalding Cattle Market, where a fleet of coaches awaits to take them to their allocated positions along the Welland between Four Mile Bar and Crowland.  A starting gun is then fired.  Scenes at various locations along the river bank, followed by the final weighing and presentation of trophies.  The match was one of a series organised annually by Colonel Peter Brassey, who was the last Chairman of the Welland River Board.

618  CONTROLLING FISH STOCKS
Stamford Area  mid 1960s
3.75 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
First, we see the ‘holding ponds’, a breeding tank, and fish for re-location being tipped from portable containers into the river Welland. Then a team on board a specially equipped flat-bottomed boat remove the coarse fish from the River Gwash by means of ‘electric fishing’. Briefly stunned by an electric current applied to the water from a portable generator, the fish rise to the surface where those for removal are easily netted and transferred to a tank of oxygenated water for later release into the Welland.

619  NEW LAB  (WELLAND & NENE RIVER AUTHORITY)
Oundle  1966
1 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
Following the 1965 amalgamation of the separate River Boards into a single Authority with headquarters at the Old Rectory, Oundle, an out-building on the site was converted into a new Laboratory, opened in 1966 by Alderman Strickland, the Authority’s first Chairman.  After a ceremony in the main building, guests are seen inspecting the new facility.

620  INSPECTION DAY (WELLAND & NENE RIVER AUTHORITY)
Spalding & District  1968
6 min  Colour  16mm  Silent
Board members travel upstream by barge along the Coronation Channel and up the Welland to the new Crowland & Cowbit Wash pumping Station, which is officially opened.  With a working model, an engineer explains the newly developed siphon system for automatically lowering dangerously high river levels.  Specially designed reed-cutting boats and excavators equipped with the new reed-mowing buckets are demonstrated: these mechanical methods would soon supplant the old manual maintenance of dykes.  Finally, the Board members attend a Garden Party in the grounds of the Chairman’s house.