The North East Film Archive is one of a network of regional film archives established to collect, preserve and show film made in, or about the North East of England. Our collections are non-fiction, and date from the early 1900s to the present day, providing a rich record of life in the region over the 20th century. Many of our films are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Shiremoor Children's Treat 1980
Legendary stand-up comic Bobby Thompson ditches his trademark flat cap and Woodbine to perform for miners’ children at the Shiremoor Treat.
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Overview
In 1907 a group of men from the local pit started the Shiremoor tradition of holding a ‘treat’ (like a gala) for its children and those of the surrounding villages. Popular working-class comedian Bobby Thompson, famous for his broad dialect and tales of debt and dole, frequently in character as ‘the Little Waster’, joins the children’s colourful march in 1980 as a passenger in a veteran Austin Seven, later entertaining the crowd at the Treat field.
Along with the tradition of the Miners’ Picnic, an important celebration in mining communities, a Children’s Day was introduced in the 1880s throughout Northumberland, following the passage of the Mundella Bill in 1880 that (theoretically) made school education compulsory. Mining villages raised their own funds to provide a special day for their children, despite poverty, the first organised in 1885 at Holywell. Over two thousand local children took part in the first Shiremoor and District Treat held in July 1907. The annual event was captured on Super 8 Kodachrome film by amateur filmmaker Harry Leighton from 1973 - 1981. The tradition continues even though the pits have gone.
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