Seaton Burn Flower Show and Sports

The flame-like decay of this nitrate stock lends a haunting beauty to an extraordinary local film. The mining community of Seaton Burn enjoy their annual summer flower show, sports (quoits, athletics) and funfair, an exuberant event in the wake of the First World War. A none-too camera shy showman in a homburg playfully directs the crowd, a mass of caps, bonnets and cheeky lads in high spirits, a young miner and his sweetheart sharing a passionate kiss for the camera.

The Seaton Burn Floral and Horticultural Society was inaugurated in 1856, with organised sports events gradually becoming the focal point during annual flower shows in the shadow of the colliery pithead, attracting competitors from all over the coalfield. By the 1890s professional starters and handicappers had emerged. Early independent exhibitors understood the business value of capturing as many of the faces as possible on film with an eye on its appeal to a local audience. It is not known who commissioned this film, which may have been screened at a Bioscope show at the travelling fairground pictured here. The Queens Picture House at Seaton Burn did not open until around 1921.