National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Life Boat Day at Rhyl
All of Rhyl turns out to launch its cutting-edge lifeboat, seen hauled along streets and sands before putting to sea.
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Overview
All of Rhyl (certainly all its Scouts) turns out to launch the lifeboat, some hitching a ride as it’s horse-drawn along the prom, leaving the ‘Marine Lake’ charabanc forlorn. Down the street it trundles, then on to the sands on boarded wheels before launching. Our next view is from the air, the boat’s oars like matchsticks, before its ‘Return’, horses hitched and heaving, safe into the boathouse.
Derek Shannon took over Rhyl’s Market Street cinema from Arthur Cheetham in May 1919, and with the Shannon Film Company produced local topicals covering events such as the Flying Week, Lifeboat Day and May Day celebrations. The Shannon brothers knew that film of the lifeboat’s special day would fill cinema seats, and the vessel seen here is ‘Caroline Richardson II’, of the pioneering Richardson ‘banana boat’ tubular design with slatted deck to allow drainage. The film seen here in fact combines footage from films of the Life Boat Day shot in both 1919 and 1920.
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