The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Flowers for Leeds
Leeds in the 1950s in glorious Kodachrome colour, with the winners of Flowers for Leeds proudly showing off their gardens on the council estates, terraced streets and pre-fabs.
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Overview
In this marvellous film of the annual Flowers for Leeds competition, Leeds is looking at its best. The well-tended flower beds of the parks are seen alongside the splendid house gardens, naming the winners of the individual categories. Even the poorer areas, with the children playing in the streets, stand comparison with the more affluent semi-detached suburbia; with its cosiness that helped to spawn the ‘my generation’ rebellion of the 1960s.
This is a film of the annual Flowers for Leeds competition made by members of Leeds Cine Club. They went on to film the competition on several other occasions during the 1950s, thereby presenting a unique portrait of the city for that decade, especially useful as the winners and judges are identified, and street names are also given. The films were commissioned by The Yorkshire Evening Post, which also sponsored the competition. With the post-war boom in building houses with gardens, gardening became a major hobby, especially as so many gardens had been turned over to grow vegetables during the war. The competition started in the 1930s and ended in the 1960s, to be replaced by the Leeds in Bloom competition.
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