Science Joins an Industry

The English cloth trade progresses into the postwar world, with research and development pointing the way

From a coracle to the laboratory, the long story of technology prefaces this advocacy for the appliance of science. While the Luddite frame-breakers receive a reference, it’s the virtues of progress that are applauded here. The Shirley Institute in Didsbury delivers the evidence but it takes a Lancashire man from the mill floor to tell the boss why it’s not all just bobbins.

Director James Hill was freshly demobbed but already had a film industry career that began before WWII and included service in the RAF Film Unit. His favouring of a drama-documentary style prefigures his later career directing feature films, including the celebrated Born Free. Hill had some personal affinity with the cloth business via his family’s association with the Yorkshire wool trade.