761-780

761 FATHER CHRISTMAS AT LOUTH
Louth c 1970
1.5 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Father Christmas arrives at Louth Cattle Market on board a fire engine from RAF Manby, to be greeted by the Mayor. The small group of onlookers appear somewhat underwhelmed.

762 CHAPEL ST LEONARDS
Chapel St Leonards 1960
4 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Typical general views of streets, chalets, caravan park and beach. Perhaps most notable is the vast quantity of scummy algal foam that has built up along the shoreline. An adult couple are seen playing Jokari, a game briefly fashionable at the time in which bats were used to hit a captive ball on a long elastic cord fixed to the ground.

763 BOSTON MAY FAIR
Boston 1959
4.75 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Showmen are seen arriving at Boston Market Place and building the rides. The Mayor tries out several of these on opening day. General fairground scenes including some at night, followed by departure of the showmen in their lorries.

764 BOSTON VETERAN CYCLE RALLY
Boston, Benington 1971
4.5 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Cyclists in period costume ride a variety of pennyfarthings and other veteran bicycles from Boston Market Place to the nearby village of Benington, where they pause for a well-earned pint at the Admiral Nelson before returning to Boston’s Central Park.

765 OUR DECIMAL COINAGE
Spalding 1970
4 min Colour Standard 8mm Sound
Of some historical interest despite the film’s poor quality. The prices (20p for a tin of corned beef), the huge calculating machine, and the once universal Post Office slot machines for stamps are of note, as is the reminder that the change-over occurred in stages, with many of the new coins in use before the final ‘D Day’, 15th February 1971. The format of ‘the young instructing the old’ follows that of the official decimal currency information films of the day.

766 MR JOHN’S GREEN GOLD
Spalding, Windward Islands 1976
22.5 min Colour 16mm Sound
Since the 1930s, the Dutch brothers John and Leonard van Geest had been successfully expanding their Spalding based tulip business. Then in the 1950s, John van Geest turned his attention to bananas (the green gold of the title) encouraging the Windward Islanders to improve the quality of their crop, and eventually importing their entire output to the UK. Geests Spalding factory and the tulip fields are featured, but the bulk of the film shows the work in the plantations, interspersed with delightful scenic views of the islands.

767 FARMING AT RUSKINGTON
Ruskington c 1963
12 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Scenes of commercial strawberry growing (usefully complementing those in Acc No 591) followed by a variety of harvest scenes which neatly summarise the changes in agricultural technology. At first we see horse-drawn, and later tractor-drawn, reaper-binders, with sheaves being stooked in the fields, and a traditional belt-driven threshing machine. Then combine harvesters of various kinds appear, making the old machinery obsolete. But back at the farmyard, pigs and piglets still roam happily and freely amidst the muck and straw, and a swarm of bees is carefully collected using the once-familiar basket made from coils of twisted straw. The film concludes with scenes at the Lincolnshire Show, with prize cattle and a parade of horse-drawn wagons.

768 PHEASANT SHOOTING
Wansford c 1950
2 min B/W 16mm Silent
Filmed on Boxing Day in the village of Sutton near Wansford, Peterborough. We see the guns set off on foot, then take up position in the bleak wintry open fields. Birds appear overhead, and duly fall to the ground, where they are gathered up by well-trained retrievers.

769 EAST COAST FLOODS
Sutton on Sea 1953
6 min B/W & Colour 16mm Silent
Filmed several days after the floods had subsided, leaving everything covered in sand and silt. A few scenes of damaged buildings and sea defences are followed by bulldozers at work filling the acre gap, though with little of the expected sense of urgency. The colour scenes show the house featured in Acc No 771 with its garden completely buried under heaps of sand.

770 PETERBOROUGH OAPs OUTING TO SKEGNESS
Skegness c 1955
3.5 min Colour 16mm Silent
The party assembles ready to board the coach. On arrival, they wander about the sea front in small groups, visit the bowling green, and sit in horse-drawn carriages. It is all very sedate, with fairly static shots of the participants, but characters and costume make it of some period interest.

771 AT OUR HOLIDAY HOUSE
Sutton on Sea c 1950 – 1960
37 min B/W & Colour 16mm Silent
A collection of scenes spanning more than a decade and featuring an extended family group, ranging from babies in prams to OAPs, and augmented by the various friends who joined them from time to time at their weekend retreat, a large house which stood only a stone’s throw from the sea. Activities include tennis, golf, cricket, skittles, bumblepuppy, sunbathing and al fresco meals in the garden, horse riding, swimming in the sea or a tiny private pool, beach scenes, boating and a visit to Skegness Zoo. The material is divided into three sections, dating from the early, middle and late 1950s, with a brief late appendix from about 1968. Whilst each segment contains items of interest, the first (and longest) is lthe most consistently rewarding, providing a fascinating insight into the recreational life of a large, well-to-do family of the time.

772 CIRCUS PARADE
Grimsby 1962/6
3.75 min Colour Standard 8 mm Silent
To publicise their week’s residence, Smart’s Circus parades through the streets of Grimsby, ending up at the Big Top. The procession includes numerous exotic animals, elephants, camels, zebras, llamas, etc, plus horses, clowns, costumed performers on decorated floats, and various other vehicles. [The bulk of the film dates from 1962, but there are a few additional scenes from a similar event in about 1966.]

773 VILLAGE SHOP
Laceby c 1962
2 min Colour Standard 8 mm Silent
A few brief interior scenes showing the wide variety of goods crammed into the limited space. Also seen are a couple of vans, large and small, used as mobile shops.

774 SKELLINGTHORPE SCENES
Skellingthorpe c 1936/7
8 min B/W 9.5 mm Silent
A steam train from Lincoln arrives at Skellingthorpe station and departs. Other passenger trains, both local and express, are then seen. At one point, both goods and passenger trains go through the station at the same time. Various scenes of the village follow, including the school and the cemetery. Attention then turns to the village shop and bakery. Bakers in traditional white hats knead the dough; pig carcasses are brought in for making the pork pies; large and small delivery vans arrive and depart; bread is delivered to a local house using a traditional wicker basket. Finally, the film maker’s young daughter helps to feed the hens behind the shop and bakery, and discovers how to work the pump which raises water from the well.

775 FOOTBALL MATCH AT SINCIL BANK
Lincoln c 1937
1.5 min B/W 9.5 mm Silent
Of particular interest as the stands on all sides of the stadium are seen, so that their structure and the advertisements of the period can be studied After half-time, one team is playing shirtless. Hot day?

776 PAVING THE WAY
Various locations c 1973 – 4
17.5 min Colour 16mm Sound
Made for the Cement & Concrete Association, the film shows the methods and machinery used when building roads out of concrete, (regarded as a promising alternative to asphalt in the 1960s & 70s.) ‘Paving’ in this case refers to the road surface itself, and not to the slabs used for paths and patios. After scenes showing the bulk production of concrete on site, two main alternative road-making systems are then illustrated: the Paving Train, in which various separate machines move forward one behind the other, each performing its own specialised function; and the Slipform Paver, a single machine which does the entire job on its own. The installation of flexible seals between the sections, and the careful control of the inevitable cracking, are both shown in detail.

777 THE REBUILDING OF WRAWBY MILL
Wrawby 1962 – 65
17 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Prior to its restoration by members of the Wrawby Windmill Trust the mill had been virtually derelict. Its complete rebuilding and return to full working order is shown in considerable detail, with scenes both on site and at the Cleethorpes workshop where the timbers were prepared for later assembly.

778 THE ENGLISH WINDMILL
Numerous Locations 1960s & 1968 – 75
38 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
A wide range of mills in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Kent. There are no captions, but detailed notes which were supplied with the film identify the locations and points of special interest.

779 SIBSEY MILL
Sibsey 1974
1.25 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
A few brief scenes taken from various angles.

780 RESTORATION OF WALTHAM MILL
Waltham 1979-82 and 1984-6
20 min Colour Standard 8mm Silent
Removing the old cap and rebuilding a new one in situ, followed by the making and fitting of new sails and fan assembly.