This film is part of Free

Crabbers

This beautiful colour film from D J Church follows the work of the Crabbers of Newlyn - who catch the crabs that go into tea-time pots of paste

Amateur film 1961 13 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Screen Archive South East

Overview

D J Church's film begins with a garden tea party, with crab sandwiches on the menu. Next we move to Coverack in Cornwall to see the Crabber's in action; preparing their boats, retrieving storepots and unloading their substantial catch into baskets. Full baskets of edible crabs and lobsters are loaded onto the quayside and weighed. The catch is loaded onto a truck from Newlyn and taken away. Women separate the crab meat from the shells and the film ends back at the tea party.

D J Church lived in Horley, East Grinstead and Slinfold. He was a founder member of the Haywards Heath Cine Society and served as vice-chairman from 1954 to 1957 and as Chairman until 1958. Established in 1949, the society, which would later alter its name to the Haywards Heath Cine and Video Society, to incorporate new technology, is still actively filming scenes and events in Haywards Heath and the surrounding area, though it is now operates under the title of the Haywards Heath Movie Makers. Screen Archive South East has a large number of the society's films and videos in its collection, dating from the 1930s to the present day.