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A breathtaking winter journey in the Pennines, from country to town and back again via electric tram.
Non-Fiction 1902 4 mins Silent
An unusually painterly visual sweep (taking landscape rather than people as its subject) distinguishes this particularly special Mitchell and Kenyon film. It proves thought-provoking as well as beautiful: expressing the changes to the face of Britain heralded by tram electrification and later accelerated by the internal combustion engine: the route travelled here is today a busy A-road.
In his celebrated 1934 travelogue An English Journey, author and thinker J.B. Priestley suggested there were "three Englands": the first a peaceful, ageless, pastoral land; the second a gritty, smoky one spawned by the Industrial Revolution; and the third an urban and suburban 20th-century England less rooted and romantic than either - and destined to supplant them both. Tram Ride in Halifax was filmed three decades earlier, yet it somehow encompasses all of Priestley's Englands, while revealing the crucial role of transport in connecting and transforming them all.
Non-Fiction 1902 9 mins Silent Location: Portishead
A fine variety of views of the Avon gorge taken from various positions downstream from the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Silent Location: Furness Abbey
A driver's view of the Furness Railway through Furness Abbey Tunnel and Station.
Non-Fiction 1904 3 mins Silent Location: Sunderland
The thrill of a ride through central Sunderland to the sea at Roker.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent Location: Liverpool
A fascinating film tour into the heart of Edwardian Liverpool.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent Location: Egremont
Edwardian tourists and businessmen hurry off the ferry and down the long pier at Egremont on the River Mersey.
Non-Fiction 1901 3 mins Silent Location: Plymouth
Views from an Edwardian railway trip, filmed just east of the Devon-Cornwall border and over the Tamar.
Documentary 1981 6 mins Location: Halifax
Dedicated volunteers from Halifax provide a talking newspaper service for locals on cassettes, strangely not motivated by money.
Factual TV 1987 9 mins Location: Halifax
Halifax’s Calderdale Council inspires real and lasting positive change in the community through infrastructure investment in this film.
Amateur film 1985 9 mins Location: Halifax
An experienced Halifax baker takes us behind the counter and showcases his sweet and savoury secrets in this endearing short film.
Documentary 1910 2 mins Silent Location: Halifax
One of the most industrious and enterprising towns of northern England takes a break to greet the novelty of the movie camera.
Documentary 1985 25 mins Location: Halifax
Women workers give voice to their puzzlement, anger and despair as years of hard work cleaning laundry for hospitals is discarded.
Industry sponsored film 1965 17 mins Location: Halifax
The lesson here is clear, do the right things in the workplace – wear totectors and Rozalex barrier cream – and all will be well, and if not there is a nurse on hand with a plaster.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1936 8 mins
Spoiler alert! The fox is always going to outsmart the hounds in this delightful, balletic cartoon that heads from the countryside into 1930s suburbia.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1936 9 mins
Carmen get your cartoon opera fix in this (very!) loose version of Bizet’s classic tale of romance and treachery.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1909 4 mins
Toy Story meets Fatal Attraction in this tale of an Edwardian childhood romance scuppered by poor finances and a stalking dolly
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1940 8 mins
Who does he think he’s kidding? This parodic day-in-the-life portrait of Mr Hitler is one of the very few British examples of comic cartoon propaganda from WW2.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1919 10 mins Silent
Remember when Charlie Chaplin went into space? Reality is no obstacle in this endlessly inventive silent cinema cartoon of the 'Little Tramp'
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1925 6 mins
1920s canine icon Bonzo the Dog tests the Entente Cordiale to the limit in this silent British cartoon
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