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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Test Film
A chance to see men busy welding and fitting out at one of the many small shipyards that used to dot the country, filmed by one of their fellow ship workers.
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Overview
A rare chance to see a local amateur filmmaker, Roy Cass of Selby, filming his workmates at work. In this case welding and doing joinery on a new ship in the now closed Cochrane Shipyard. Other major local employers that have subsequently closed seen in the film are the British sugar beet factory and the Rank Flour Mill.
This was named as ‘Test Film’ by its maker Roy Cass because it was his first film using an 8 mm cine camera. In fact Cass had been making films of his family, Selby and Shipbuilders Cochrane & Sons since 1936, only on 9.5 film. The film shows the Rank Flour Mill before it was burnt down, Cochrane’s Shipyard and the fitting out of the stern freezer trawler, the Ross Valiant on the River Ouse. The notes for the film have identified Tom Flannery and several others of those seen.
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