This film is part of Free
Bob Boote
If affluence creates its own junkyard, can man also use wealth to restore ecology?
Overview
The potteries of Stoke persist, but this is a vision of post-industrial Britain. With pits and factories closed, polluted sites spoilt Staffordshire until restorative action was taken. Landscaping forms a new contract between man and nature, railway lines become green corridors, a quarry becomes Brockton nature reserve, closed roads allow Cannock Chase to rewild, and the River Churnet runs clean.
This film was part of the Pacemakers series produced by the Central Office of Information for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to promote progressive Britons to the world. The film was edited for a wider audience and re-released in 1970 as Black Spot to Beauty Spot. Stoke native Bob Boote combined a career as a planner with activism as a pioneer conservationist. In 1967, under the pen name Robert Arvill, he published Man and Environment; Crisis and the Strategy of Choice, a review of how 1960s Britain was failing the environment which proposed a radical strategy for improvement.
Related
Tennis Clothes Tennis Clothes
News 1980 3 mins Location: Stoke-on-Trent
Is the sale of celebrity endorsed tennis gear a big racket or a match winning ace?
Mining Review 15th Year No. 8 Mining Review 15th Year No. 8
Cinemagazine 1962 10 mins Location: Llandaff
From Llanduff to Castleford on an intriguingly odd tour of the UK's coal industry
Railway Line Reopened Railway Line Reopened
News 1980 3 mins Location: Stoke-on-Trent
The return of the 'Knotty': the long lost North Staffordshire Railway is reborn at Cheddleton.
Animal Crackers Animal Crackers
Documentary 1975 24 mins Location: Twycross Zoo
The British are crazy about their animals: Molly drinks tea with her chimps, Sylvia dyes her tiny poodle pink and Malcolm sings to his pigs.
Mining Review 13th Year No.12 Mining Review 13th Year No.12
Cinemagazine 1960 9 mins Location: Stoke-on-Trent
Pits, quoits and 'Cosie' the hungry baby bear - this cinemagazine offers some wonderful vignettes of life beyond the 'face'.
Worker and War Front No. 18 Worker and War Front No. 18
Cinemagazine 1945 11 mins Silent Location: Hackney
A wartime magazine made to motivate and inform war workers, commissioned by the Ministry of Information in 1942 and exclusively screened in factories.
Laura Mulvey in Conversation Laura Mulvey in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 76 mins
Laura Mulvey in conversation, following her BFI Fellowship Award.
George Clooney in Conversation George Clooney in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 74 mins
George Clooney visited BFI Southbank to look back on his life and career.
Chloé Zhao Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Chloé Zhao Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 65 mins
The Oscar®- winning director of Nomadland discusses her unique approach to filmmaking and the inspiration behind the adaptation of Hamnet.
Edgar Wright on The Running Man Edgar Wright on The Running Man
Inside Film 2025 28 mins
The director talks to Mark Kermode about putting Stephen King's dystopian life-or-death gameshow thriller through its paces.
Richard Linklater Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Richard Linklater Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 69 mins
Richard Linklater discusses his remarkable and wide-ranging body of work, including Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague.
Daniel Day-Lewis Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Daniel Day-Lewis Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 73 mins
Daniel Day-Lewis, the ultimate actor’s actor discusses his career in conversation with Mark Kermode.