This film is part of Free

Whitson Treat

In those carefree days it was fun to place chairs in an open-backed lorry and ride in style to a Cardiff field for races, ham sandwiches and TEA!

Amateur film 1950 14 mins

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

Looking back at footage he shot c.1950, Chris Jenkins adds his nostalgic comments to a musical soundtrack. The St Michael's curate and vicar lead lorry loads of families from the corrugated iron church in Crwys Road, Cardiff, to a field in Llanrhymney (now built on) for a day of races in the sun, ham sandwiches, lemonade, ice-creams and TEA (check out the field hot water boilers!), with milk provided by the churn. This treat is a major operation involving numbers of churches

Chris Jenkins, proprietor of 'Vanda's' hair salon in Charles Street, Cardiff (later moving to premises in Dumfries Place) was a stalwart member and one-time president of Cardiff Amateur Cine Society. He was also an accomplished amateur astronomer and artist. His son, Ken, seen as a young boy in this film, joined him in the hair salon business although he was at heart an engineer/car mechanic.