New Lives for Old

David Prowse (the frame of Darth Vader) appears as the iconic Green Cross Code Man, heaping praise on a young GXC expert.

An enticing government call for men to retrain as skilled engineers to help with the war effort.

Dusty the kangaroo catches a shadowy figure in the act of dumping an old mattress in this campaigning cartoon

Long before the ‘Charley Says’ campaign of the 1970s and ‘80s, another cartoon Charley was used to demystify the newly created NHS.

TB or not TB – that is the question travelling x-ray screening programmes are out to answer on a large scale

Another of Richard Massingham’s snappy public information fillers finds the oafish everyman’s personal hygiene in question again.

Members of the Surrey Flying Club erect their clubhouse at Croydon aerodrome while a few miles to the south we see Gatwick's pre-war terminal

Shot only five years after its opening, this film showcases the Croydon Flyover in all its concrete glory.

Join the Hinchcliffs at Bracklesham Bay in this family film from 1937 - with beachside frolics, sand yachts and Uncle Bert’s fishing lessons

It's all bell bottoms and bunting as families gather to celebrate the Queen's Silver Jubilee.

Jaunty, optimistic look at Croydon being reconstructed in the 1960s, with large concrete towers presented as a symbol of a bright new future.

Join the Ross family and friends - and a frisky fox terrier - for fun in the garden, frolics on the beach and plane-spotting at Croydon Aerodrome

Hand-drawn sound experiment by Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy.

A classic slice of British advertising history, though that hill's not as Northern as it looks...

Edwardian workers react to the camera at one of Rotherham's major employers.

Eager youngsters burst out of the gates of a Victorian cotton mill.

It's the first weekend of July 1901, and high society are on the Thames

An unusual farewell in this charming early film