Lincolnshire Film Archive Listings

661 SKATING ON BURGHLEY LAKE
Stamford c 1932
3.25 min B/W 9.5mm Silent
An ice-hockey match, followed by skaters of all ages displaying everything from perilous incompetence to seemingly effortless skill. First Prize undoubtedly goes to the father seen towing his four-year old daughter behind him in a wooden crate.

662 FISHING DAYS
Stamford area c 1932
7.25 min B/W 9.5mm Silent
Enthusiastic fishermen (and women) filmed informally at various locations, mostly on the River Gwash. Their success rate seems enviably high, with even a novice three-year-old reeling them in.

663 THE HARVEST IS YOURS
Wisbech etc c 1969
25 min Colour 16mm Sound
A film promoting Smedleys tinned vegetables and fruit. Scenes at the Wisbech canning factory are of exceptional interest and quality, but a number of other locations are also featured. Both in its attitudes and its incidental detail (such as the happy family meal) it is already something of a period piece.

664 WILDFOWL
The Fens 1960s & 70s
67 min Colour Std 8mm Silent
A miscelleneous compilation including clay pigeon shooting, several shoots at fenland locations in various weather conditions, rearing chicks in pens, copious footage of wild birds in flight, and a wildlife sanctuary run by the Fenland Wildfowlers’ Association. Of particular interest is the Borough Fen Duck Decoy in use as a ringing station by the Wildfowl Trust, with birds being caught, ringed and released.

665 THE RED ARROWS AT BINBROOK
Binbrook c 1973
4.25 min Colour Std 8mm Sound
Effective ground-to-air footage showing a typical display, with a few spectator cut-aways.

666 THE RED ARROWS AT SCAMPTON
Scampton 1984
9.5 min Colour Super 8mm Sound
Useful footage of RAF Scampton itself, (Lancaster gate-guardian, buildings, vehicles, hangars, aircraft on ground, aircrew on foot, etc) and plenty of good display training footage, though unfortunately with only eight planes instead of the full nine.

667 BOTTESFORD DIG
Bottesford (nr Scunthorpe) 1983-4
15 min Colour Super 8mm Silent
The excavation of Templar’s Field (November 1983 to March 1984) ahead of a proposed new housing development. The work was supervised by the curators of Scunthorpe and Baysgarth Museums, but all other participants were volunteers, their numbers dwindling steadily until at the end only three were left. Remains of a late medieval building were excavated, plus a Victorian land drain and a number of stone or brick floors. Portable finds included various pottery fragments and a few medieval coins. The excavation was never written up or published, but the film is of interest as illustrating the general procedures and archae-ological techniques in use at the time.

668 A GOOD CRISP STORY
Scunthorpe c 1977
12 min Colour Super 8mm Sound
Filmed at Riley’s of Scunthorpe, when it was still a locally based business, – it was later taken over by Golden Wonder – and showing the whole process of crisp manufacture from the arrival of the raw potatoes to the despatch of cartons full of the finished product. Informative, and full of interest.
A 10.5 minute Show version is available

669 SOUTH SIDE STORY
Barton on Humber 1970s & 80s
25.5 min Colour Super 8mm Sound
The building of the Humber Bridge, an engineering masterpiece, which in its day was the longest suspension bridge in the world Besides material of the work in progress, there is extensive coverage of the official opening by H.M. the Queen in July 1981, and a nostalgic farewell to the paddle-steamer ferries which it made redundant. Also of interest are the Hull to Grimsby ‘marathon’ (with some participants on roller skates) and some effective scenes of night-time traffic soon after the opening.
A 12 minute Show version is available

670 NORMANBY HALL
Normanby c1985
3.75 min* Colour Super 8mm Sound/Silent
* Sound: 3 min Silent: 0.75 min
Conventional ‘library’ footage of the gardens, with a few exterior shots of the hall. Of greatest interest, perhaps, is that the peacocks include a strikingly attractive albino.

671 THE FOUR SEASONS
Northern Lincs 1970s
15.5 min Colour Super 8mm Mute**
Attractive Nature footage with good close-ups of birds, animals, flowers, and insects.
**For technical reasons the surviving musical sound track is no longer viable.

672 WOODLANDS AWAKE
Northern Lincs c 1980
10.5 min Colour Super 8mm Mute**
Attractive woodland scenes with good close-ups of birds, animals, flowers, and insects.
**For technical reasons the surviving musical sound track is no longer viable.

673 VE DAY COMMEMORATION (50th Anniv.)
Wrawby 1995
5.25 min Colour Super 8mm Sound
Village fête and carnival, with the usual stalls, children’s maypole dancing, etc, and little apart from a few posters to link the event to this special anniversary.

674 PLEASURE ISLAND
Cleethorpes 1995
4.5 min Colour Super 8mm Sound
The usual Theme Park rides, miniature train, roller coaster, etc.

675 ROUND AND ABOUT LINCOLN
Lincoln 1937-58
26 min B/W 9.5mm Silent
Amateur material of variable quality shot by local residents and including numerous points of interest such as the Market, the children’s playground in Whitton Park, a pleasure launch on Brayford pool, street scenes with workers returning home for midday dinner – an almost universal custom in those days – and the level crossing in High Street. We also see the newly opened (1938) Indoor Market, new houses being built at Boultham Moor, using pre-fabricated slabs of concrete, Boultham swimming baths and a roller skating rink. Wartime scenes include Fire Guards with their helmets and stirrup pump, the 1940 Fair, the floods of 1941, and V.E. Day. Scenes from the mid 1950s showing the building of Pelham Bridge are of some interest despite their limited technical quality.
A 10 minute Show version 1937-45 is available

676 STEEL SURVEY, SCUNTHORPE EDITION
Scunthorpe c 1948
10.5 min B/W 16mm Sound
Filmed at least in part at the Normanby Park Steel Works, formerly known as Lysaght’s (opened 1911, closed early 1980s). Actual steel making is not shown, but the film includes iron smelting in blast furnaces with manual and automated loading: the excavatiion and preparation of local ore: and steel rolling mills, where white hot steel rods are shaped into hexagons by passing them between specially profiled rollers.

677 SHRIMP BOATS
The Wash 1960s
4 min Colour Std 8mm Silent
Men on board a small commercial fishing boat from Kings Lynn are seen cleaning and boiling shrimps, using traditional equipment that has clearly seen long use.

678 RSPCA GARDEN PARTIES & PET SHOWS
Louth 1965/66
11.5 min Colour Std 8mm Silent
Genteel Garden Fete scenes typical of the period, with hatted ladies running the stalls. Children parade with their pets (mainly dogs, but one has a stick insect). Of particular interest is a Police Dog demonstration, with two German Shepherds catching and flooring suitably padded ‘criminals’.

679 FARMING AT HELPRINGHAM
Helpringham 1950s
49 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Typical arable farming scenes of the period from the south of the county, featuring a wide range of tractors and machinery, (including one or two less familiar makes). Drilling, harrowing, fertiliser spreading, wheat harvesting; grass mowing, tedding, baling and drying; potato planting, beet lifting; crop spraying, muck shifting; land drainage, and clearing dykes with a dragline are all covered, together with a few nostalgic reminders of the old days – horse drawn ploughing, hand hoeing, etc. There is also some interesting footage of flooded roads and fields in the district in 1958.

Nos 680 – 693 (See also No 565)

The Scout Films of Edwin Slater

From the 1930s to the 1950s, the late Mr E.O.Slater produced a series of films featuring the 3rd Cleethorpes Scout Group, of which he was Assistant Scoutmaster. Many were filmed at the Group’s own Springfield site at Scartho, whilst others recorded summer camps at various locations, including the Earl of Yarborough’s Brocklesby Estate in North Lincolnshire, and Scout camp sites at Handcross and Frant Bottom in Sussex. Inevitably, perhaps, the material tends to be somewhat repetitive, with broadly similar activities filmed on many occasions, albeit with different personnel. Though all the films are of interest, three in particular (687, 688, 689) form a remarkable testament to the commitment and dedication of everyone who contributed in any way to the Springfield site and its activities over several decades. Sadly, the site eventually had to be sold and is now a housing estate.

No 565, which appears to include out-takes from several of the others, became separated from the main collection for reasons unknown, and reached LFA some time before the rest. But it clearly belongs with them and forms a useful supplement to the other productions.

680 CLEETHORPES SWIMMING POOL etc
Cleethorpes, Edale, London 1930s
10 min B/W 16mm Silent
Teenage boys (Scouts, in fact) larking about in the open-air swimming pool. The scene has a good ‘period’ feel. [The film includes Edale, and various London tourist attractions such as The Tower, Piccadilly Circus and the Zoo.]