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.
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Spare Time
The traditional pastimes of a council estate, revealing the lack of money and the underlining tensions between genders and generations.
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Overview
A Yorkshire Television documentary that focuses on what some typical residents do in their spare time on the Manor Estate of council housing in Sheffield in 1987. Among the leisure activities pursued by some of the colourful characters are racing pigeons, fishing and gardening; while youth play on slot machines, an elderly woman combats loneliness by CB radio, boys go boxing and many have a good singalong down the Springwood pub on a Friday night.
This is the third of a series of four themed programmes that were aired in August 1987, and were later re-edited to a shorter length and broadcast on Channel 4, this time naming those residents who are interviewed. Although the Manor has had many houses demolished since the film was made, and new houses built, it remains quite neglected: with the Springwood pub having been closed and boarded up for several years. However, the Manor Boxing club (now Academy) remains, there is still a Sheffield Amateur Radio Club, and the Manor now has a youth club – although it isn’t certain how many pigeon fanciers are left.
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