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Village School

WWII evacuees adapt to village life in a patriotic documentary starring a real Buckinghamshire school teacher.

Documentary 1940 11 mins

Overview

A real Buckinghamshire schoolteacher - the kindly Mrs James - is the star of this persuasive WWII propaganda film. Shot on location in Ashley Green, it shows how evacuees from surrounding towns adapt to village life and wartime conditions. With its images of happy, healthy children, the film was clearly designed to give reassurance to city-dwelling mothers separated from their offspring.

Village School was shown in national cinemas and was also available free of charge from the government's central film library for screenings in village halls, schools and factories, to community groups and the general public. As well as this 11-minute film, a shorter version was released later the same year - under the title Ashley Green Goes to School - which is gentler in tone and may have been considered more suitable for younger audiences. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.

Director

John Eldridge

Genres

Documentary and Government sponsored film

Country

United Kingdom

Location

Ashley Green

Language

English

Subjects

Primary Schools World War II Villages Rural life Rural scenes Countryside Evacuees Vegetable gardens

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