iPhone and iPad users: You will need to download app version 2.9 to enable playback. See Help for more information.
This film is part of Free
Batley go down to Lancashire rivals Salford in the very first season of the Northern Rugby League.
Non-Fiction 1901 8 mins Silent
This is probably the most accomplished of Mitchell and Kenyon's rugby films. It's rich with sporting action from the Northern Rugby League's very first season, and offers rare glimpses of scoring opportunities: a Salford try under the posts and four kicks at goal. Remarkably, there's also an interior shot (rare as hen's teeth in Edwardian films) showing Salford's dressing room in the local pub.
The film is an incredibly atmospheric evocation of the afternoon's entertainment, and an eye-opening record of the speed, brutality and popularity of the sport in northern England at the time. Viewers of the modern Union game (a closer cousin to Northern Rugby League than the post-1907 Rugby League, when many of the game's most distinctive rule changes were set in place) may well recognise a game of explosive action intermixed with persistent and lengthy scrummaging - much to the frustration of many a commentator today.
Non-Fiction 1900 2 mins Silent
A veritable Victorian Towering Inferno.
Non-Fiction 1899 1 mins Silent Location: Henley-on-Thames
Jolly boating weather as the hordes descend on Henley for the Regatta.
Non-Fiction 1900 0 mins Silent Location: Cambridge
University teams navigate a bend on the river Cam in no ordinary rowing race.
Non-Fiction 1898 1 mins Silent Location: Ewood Park, Blackburn
A little piece of football history from the people's game: possibly the earliest surviving game on film
Non-Fiction 1898 2 mins Silent Location: Blackwall
The launch of H.M.S Albion, which was marred by the collapse of a gangway which resulted in many spectators drowning.
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins
The magic of a real solar eclipse filmed by a famous magician
Charity appeal 1934 8 mins Location: Southport
Windows of opportunity: how a charity aimed to improve the lives of blind and partially sighted people.
Student film 1978 4 mins Location: Salford
When you're waiting for the emergency call, time goes by so slowly...
Advert 1928 10 mins Silent Location: Salford
Watching the soaps in Salford, the "birthplace of a billion bubbles".
Amateur film 1945 11 mins Silent Location: Preston
Playing the beautiful game - the ladies from Lancashire demonstrate their skills.
Advert 1948 4 mins Location: Nelson
A tribute to Lancashire, land of industry, leisure, sublime landscape - and laundry detergent
Documentary 1973 0 mins Location: Brentford
An insightful and understated television documentary following the lives of four Muslim families in Brentford, Manchester and Harrow.
Documentary 2020 11 mins
Searching for one of the last people to speak Gayle - a secret language the gay community were forced to invent during Apartheid.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2017 4 mins
A comedy-drama animation about two best friends growing up in the same world but experiencing it completely differently.
Drama 2019 14 mins
An African Pentecostal Pastor questions everything she believes after a life-changing event.
Drama 2018 8 mins
Samona Olanipekun explores the concepts of home, identity and belonging, from the starting point of the theme of globalisation.
Drama 2017 16 mins
Compelling story of a complex relationship between an imperious father and his son.
Documentary 2020 28 mins
Three African American fathers unravel the incomparable partnership of forgiveness and community.
Do you recognise a place, building or location in this film?
Help us populate the Britain on Film map by spotting and plotting the street or location you know. This is a BFI project and anyone can help.
Go to our Britain on Film crowdsourcing site and contribute to our mapping mission – to identify locations within our archive films.
Add a location
