The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
The Supply came to Ashcombe
The South Western Electricity Board lights up Aschcombe
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Overview
A film showing how modern electricity is installed by the South Western Electricity Board or SWEB in the village of Ashcombe near Teignmouth, Devon taking it from old gas lighting to modern fluorescent lighting and a more stable metered electricity supply almost overnight. The current is carried by new electricity pylons into homes in the village. A couple show off their new comforts from lights to a hot cup of tea giving a glimpse of modern domestic bliss in post war Britain.
Electricity at this time is generated from coal fired power stations with the first nuclear power station opened at Calder Hall, Sellafield in 1956. In 1948 a quarter of British homes have no electricity and government grants and new house-building schemes after the Second World War lead to a radical modernisation of factories and homes alike. Many rural locations are also connected and electricity has important consequences for farm yields and increased food production.
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