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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Wading waist deep in marshy water, in somewhat inappropriate clothing of the 1930s, the adventurous students of Bootham School in York show plenty of both enthusiasm and talent.
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Overview
A wonderful film of students at Bootham School in York on the eve of the war in 1939. The students go out on adventurous excursions for field studies in archaeology and natural history. And, as well as the expected Latin with a fee paying private school, here we see students from well off backgrounds demonstrating their abilities in the traditionally technical subjects such as woodwork and metalwork.
This is one of several films relating to the Quaker School of Bootham in the 1930s made by Alan Pickard, who attended the school between 1920 and 1924. The film highlights the school Natural History Society, formed in 1834, “the oldest society in the country of organising and furthering useful school hobbies”. The emphasis given to woodwork and metalwork also shows the broad approach of a school which “encourages its students to be creative thinkers, peacemakers and confident humanitarians”. The School was evacuated to Ampleforth College soon after this film, when it was prepared for conversion into a hospital. Close observation may possibly reveal Brian Rix, who was at Bootham at the time.
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