iPhone and iPad users: You will need to download app version 2.9 to enable playback. See Help for more information.
This film is part of Free
Employees of a South Yorkshire brassworks walk or cycle past the camera.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent
Probably shot in spring or autumn (it's sunny, but the clothes suggest it wasn't warm), this film shows the entirely male workforce leaving this Rotherham foundry. Most are on foot, although two have bicycles. They seem more aware of the camera than in similar films, and the younger lads (and some adults) spontaneously form a mini-parade at the very end, waving their caps in the air.
Peter and Edward Chrimes first established a brass foundry in Rotherham's Market Place in 1843, initially specialising in high-pressure taps but quickly moving into fire hydrants, sluice valves and similar items. John Guest joined the firm in 1847, and the firm relocated to its present site in 1857. As of 2013, the building remains standing, although it has been in disuse since the foundry's closure in 1999.
Non-Fiction 1900 3 mins Silent Location: Chorley
Lancashire cotton-workers pile out through the mill gates at dinner time.
Non-Fiction 1900 3 mins Silent Location: Elswick
An astonishingly crowded Victorian street reveals the vast scale of Tyneside manufacturing.
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Silent Location: Kingston upon Hull
Bicycles and broomsticks at the ready as workers finish shift at a marine engineering works in Victorian Hull.
Non-Fiction 1900 2 mins Silent Location: Manchester
Victorian Manchester mill workers enjoy the novelty of a moving picture camera.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent Location: Dumfries
Worshippers in their Sunday best file out of the Church.
Non-Fiction 1902 1 mins Silent
A well-dressed church congregation gathers on the elegant portico.
Non-Fiction 1901 3 mins Silent Location: Rotherham
Edwardian workers react to the camera at one of Rotherham's major employers.
Lifestyle show 1986 25 mins Location: River Don
Naturalist Michael Clegg retraces the paths of merchants who travelled from Cheshire to Rotherham with their goods.
Documentary 1985 25 mins Location: Swinton
A genuinely fascinating businessman, with workman’s hands, an old battered Austin, still labouring at 77, and keeping many a church going.
Non-Fiction 1942 9 mins Silent Location: Rotherham
This is an absorbing film of a Remembrance Day service and procession in Rotherham, unusual in being held in wartime, and made more poignant for being so.
Promotional 1930 13 mins Silent Location: Wolverhampton
Quieter than a diesel bus, more manoeuvrable than a tram. The Guy trolley bus is the answer to all your transport problems and they're 'perfectly safe up to 40mph'.
Promotional 1961 39 mins Location: Rotherham
An absorbing picture of council services at the beginning of the 1960s, with babies getting polio jabs and girls having braces fitted, while Roots is playing at the Civic Theatre.
Documentary 2020 11 mins
Searching for one of the last people to speak Gayle - a secret language the gay community were forced to invent during Apartheid.
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2017 4 mins
A comedy-drama animation about two best friends growing up in the same world but experiencing it completely differently.
Drama 2019 14 mins
An African Pentecostal Pastor questions everything she believes after a life-changing event.
Drama 2018 8 mins
Samona Olanipekun explores the concepts of home, identity and belonging, from the starting point of the theme of globalisation.
Drama 2017 16 mins
Compelling story of a complex relationship between an imperious father and his son.
Documentary 2020 28 mins
Three African American fathers unravel the incomparable partnership of forgiveness and community.
Do you recognise a place, building or location in this film?
Help us populate the Britain on Film map by spotting and plotting the street or location you know. This is a BFI project and anyone can help.
Go to our Britain on Film crowdsourcing site and contribute to our mapping mission – to identify locations within our archive films.
Add a location
