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.
This film is part of Free
Round and About
This lovely film gives a vivid portrait of Swallownest village in the winter of 1942, with fishing in icy rivers and children playing in the snow, apparently oblivious to the war.
From the collection of:
Overview
With wonderfully sensitive filming, local filmmaker Kenneth Raynor shows that not all was gloom during the dark days of the war. The film is notable for its aesthetic quality: Raynor being also a keen photographer. The Yorkshire village of Swallownest looks idyllic in a wintry landscape (probably February 1942), with children making the most of the snow. One wouldn’t know that just 8 miles west Sheffield had been heavily bombed on the nights of 12th/13th of December 1940.
Kenneth Raynor, who made about 18 films between 1940 and 1947, was trained as a chemist and employed in a steelworks in Sheffield during the war, being registered as a conscientious objector. Cine film was difficult to obtain during the war, but using just 8 mm film Raynor managed to capture the serene quality of village life – in both black and white and colour – amidst of the horrors of the time. Unlike other amateur filmmakers at this time, Raynor shows a country in war, but not at war.
Related
Watch for free
I Saw This, November 1940 I Saw This, November 1940
Home movie 1940 17 mins Silent Location: Swallownest
An enigmatic pot-pourri of a film of a village in wartime. Although life appears here as normal, an inauspicious motif seems to lurk within the avant-garde cinematic style.
Watch for free
Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande - Q&A Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande - Q&A
Inside Film 2024 22 mins
The director of a documentary about British funk pioneers Cymande joins the band at BFI Southbank to talk about the film.
Watch for free
The West Case The West Case
Action and Adventure 1923 28 mins Silent Location: Tilbury
Plotting world domination, Devil Doctor Fu-Manchu steals plans for a new aero-torpedo in this earliest surviving thrill-a-minute serial instalment.
Watch for free
Enter the Scala!!! Enter the Scala!!!
Inside Film 2024 16 mins
Filmmakers Jane Giles and Ali Catterall discuss their documentary Scala!!!, revisiting the legendary and inspirational cinema venue and some of the most notorious films that screened there.
Watch for free
Smith Smith
Charity appeal 1939 10 mins
Long thought lost, this Powell-directed promotional short for a veteran’s charity was only rediscovered in 2003.
Watch for free
An Airman's Letter to His Mother An Airman's Letter to His Mother
Documentary 1941 6 mins
A poignant, stirring letter from a recently deceased pilot to his mother is read by John Gielgud.
Watch for free
The NHS75 Celebration The NHS75 Celebration
Short documentary 2023 3 mins
Former Bristol Poet Laureate, Miles Chambers reads a poem specially commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the NHS.