Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. The archive's collections of magic lantern slides, films, videos and associated materials capture the many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.
This film is part of Free
Festival Celebrations in Canterbury
The people of Canterbury and Kent celebrate the 1951 Festival of Britain - in this sumptuous colour film extravaganza from John Clague
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Overview
John Clague's film starts with a Festival Service on 18th July 1951. We see local dignitaries and foreign visitors file into Canterbury Cathedral - greeted at the door by the Dean, Hewlett Johnson. We then move to an outdoor Festival exhibition held on the remains of a wartime bomb site. There then follows a colourful Festival Procession – with numerous tableaux depicting the history of Kent and Canterbury - with an accent on the region's importance as a centre of pilgrimage
Canterbury's Festival celebrations ran from 18th July to 10th August 1951 - starting off with the Festival Service seen in this film, which features the Rev. Dr Hewlett Johnson, who was nicknamed ‘The Red Dean of Canterbury’ due to his strongly pro-Soviet views. John Clague, who made the film, also produced annual newsreels showing events in and around Herne Bay - from 1934 to 1970. He used 9.5mm film at first but by the 1950s had adopted 16mm film. Included in the collection are a number of fascinating pre-war films about Herne Bay’s ARP preparations as well as numerous films featuring Canterbury. Today, these films have become an important visual and colourful record of this historic city.
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