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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Captain Cook's County
A thriving post-war Teesside with workers crossing Middlesbrough’s iconic Transporter Bridge, and York City displaying fine dribbling skills at a packed Bootham Crescent.
From the collection of:
Overview
As the Burgess flour van does its rounds, a chance to see Middlesbrough and the famous Transporter Bridge in operation back in the 1950s. Further out is the equally famous Roseberry Topping with collieries and potash mines that have passed into history. There is also some wonderful film of a York City match, showing just how fast and skilful football could be back in 1956, and how big the crowds were, with a not insignificant number of cheering women supporters among them.
This is a film made by Harry Burgess, who took over the Victory Mill in Thornton le Dale, working since the 13th century, in 1947, although the Burgess family were millers for over 300 years. Originally producing their famous Gold Medal flour, the Burgess Group plc now focus on animal food. Many of the places in the film haven’t been identified, and doubtless some will have closed in the meantime. The York City game may possibly be against Crewe Alexandra (judging by the slim evidence in the film), on 29 August 1955, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Although York have dropped a division since then (as of 2014-15), at that time they averaged 11,000 for a home crowd, as against about 3,000 today.
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