National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Porthcawl - diving, picnics, carnival
Carnival time in Porthcawl and the Savoy Cabbage Comic Band are, as advertised, murdering music and the Merrett family/friends picnic with wind-up gramophone and lethal slide.
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Overview
Picnics and parades in Porthcawl. The 6th Battalion of The Welch Regiment march along the front and the carnival wends its merry way with accompaniment from the Ynyshir 'Savoy Cabbage Comic Band', advertised as 'Murderers of Music, Manufacturers of Noise'. Merrett family picnic-ers at Sker Point play cricket and put life and limb in jeopardy by taking rides down a derelict railed slope on an old wagon. A film from the Merrett Gridley Archive.
Sir Herbert Henry Merrett died at home in Dinas Powys in 1959 having started work in the coal industry in 1899, as a 13-year old clerk for Cory Bros. He rose to become Chair of Powell Duffryn Ltd, serving as High Sheriff of Glamorgan, President of Glamorgan County Cricket Club, Life President of Cardiff City AFC. In 1932 he published “I Fight for Coal”, dedicated to his first employer, John Cory, “pioneer in the planned production and overseas distribution of Welsh coal”. The British Coal Exporters Federation responded furiously with a publication entitled “We Fight for Facts”. Merrett’s eldest daughter, Joan, married John Crandon Gridley (National Coal Board, Mobil Oil Company, Powell Duffryn).
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