London’s Screen Archives enables Londoners see their past come alive on film. Managed by Film London, we are a unique network of historic film collections that cares for, collects and screens heritage film across the city. Together we preserve London’s rich film heritage from feature films to home movies, public information films, newsreels, and records of the capital’s many different industries.
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Middlesex. Mere Males Not Wanted
Dozens of women riders let rip in a 1920s motorbike race through fields and tracks around Wood Green.
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Overview
It’s perhaps a little surprising to see so many women enthusiastically taking part in a motorbike race in the 1920s. The Topical Budget caption writer clearly thought so, asking “Where’s Adam?” over one scene, featuring a woman on her bike munching an apple and failing to suppress a snigger. The racers – there were 59, taking part in the “all ladies reliability trial” – are then shown driving through muddy fields and along tacks, solo and with sidecars.
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