At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
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The Official Opening of Bournemouth Athletic Centre
Bournemouth's King's Park Athletic Centre is officially opened in 1960 with a celebratory athletics match organised by the Royal Navy
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Overview
This film features an athletics match held at Bournemouth Athletics Club's new athletic centre at Kings Park, which was officially opened on the 23rd of July 1960. We see numerous track and field events taking place in front of a large crowd of spectators including pole vault, shot putt, discus, javelin, triple jump and a variety of track events including the steeplechase.
The Kings Park Athletic Centre was opened by the noted New Zealand surgeon, Sir Arthur Porrit, who was himself a bronze medallist in the 1924 Olympic Games. The athletics match seen in the film was organised by the Royal Navy and pitted the AAA Combined Services team against the Universities Combined team.
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