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Edwardian workers react to the camera at one of Rotherham's major employers.
Non-Fiction 1901 3 mins Silent
Factory workers made a popular subject for Mitchell and Kenyon, but the reaction of some of these workers differs from those seen elsewhere. Smiles are in abundance, but there's some hostility, too, notably from the youth giving the cameraman a V-sign (a cinema first?), although we're spared his accompanying language. Note the pair fighting in the background, possibly egged on by the showmen.
The Parkgate Ironworks was founded in 1823, and renamed Parkgate Iron and Steel Co. in 1888. By 1901 it employed over 6,000 people, making it one of the largest employers in the Rotherham area. Its workforce included many children as half-time workers, which accounts for their numbers here. The works closed in 1982 and the site is now occupied by Parkgate Shopping centre. This film is thought to have been shown at the annual Rotherham Statis, the local Wakes fair, where the Parkgate workers would have had the opportunity of seeing themselves on screen.
Non-Fiction 1900 3 mins Silent Location: Chorley
Lancashire cotton-workers pile out through the mill gates at dinner time.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent Location: Droylsden
Workers in Edwardian Lancashire become ghostly thanks to an odd camera effect.
Non-Fiction 1901 2 mins Silent
Where was this Edwardian paper works?
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Silent Location: St Helens
Weary glassmakers head home after morning shift.
Non-Fiction 1901 4 mins Silent Location: Birmingham
A rich impression of a vibrant Midlands works, in an unusually elaborate 'factory gate' film.
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins Silent Location: Ripley
Victorian ironworkers leave their Derbyshire factory in carefully stage-managed fashion.
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.
Amateur film 1914 2 mins Silent Location: Rotherham
An intriguing and enigmatic early short film of photographers taking themselves as subjects having discovered the joys of moving image.
Comedy 1896 1 mins Silent
A deft music hall act adapted for film, featuring the only known appearance of pioneer filmmaker Robert Paul
Advert 1985 2 mins
Take a fighter jet, a Top Gun pilot with sunglasses and a brand new SAAB 900 and you have a sure-fire vehicle to launch a Hollywood career.
Promotional 2019 10 mins
A wandering warrior dreams of a new form of expression, in this promo for UNKLE’s album The Road: Part II / Lost Highway Pt. II directed by Warren Du Preez and Nick Thornton Jones.
1935 16 mins
A rare glimpse of 1930s London in colour: the Thames has never looked lovelier.
1965 1 mins Location: York
A world away from zany humour, Richard Lester shows he can also capture the easy opulence of the upper class nibbling After Eight mints.
Advert 1946 1 mins Silent
Life is looking up! The war is over and the “Corona” Man can visit his “Corona” families once more, door-to-door.
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