The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Dancing in Preston
A party atmosphere as villagers in the East Riding continue the wartime sense of community, arm-in-arm dancing in celebratory spirit.
From the collection of:
Overview
The war is over, and celebrations are underway in the village of Preston a few miles east of Hull. Several have gone for fancy dress, as the villagers demonstrate how country dance become a favourite at parties, with the hokey cokey being the prime example. With the restraint typical of the time, the revellers troupe around the dance hall, arms over each other’s shoulder – very useful for being held up for those a little worse for drink.
This is one of a small collection of films made by William Vaughan who ran a business supplying loudspeakers for outside events in the Holderness area of the East Riding just after the end of the war. As well as Preston, he filmed events, such as agricultural shows and village fairs, in Welwick, Hedon, Thorngumbald, Ottringham and Ryehill, including celebrations of the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. He would then publicly show the films in the villages. Around that time he also filmed sports days at St Philomena’s Convent School for Girls in Rise Hall, in East Yorkshire, where his daughter, Maureen, was a pupil (now owned by property guru and TV personality, Sara Beeny).
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