Days at Itchenor with the Kingfisher

This delightful film shows the Staley family enjoying a boating holiday in the waters in and around Chichester Harbour in the early 1930s

Ralph Staley's film shows his family enjoying life aboard the Kingfisher. Daughter, Pam, wife Nellie and brother Robert, as well as an older man who could be the grandfather, are seen throughout the film playing in the water or on sandbanks when the tide is low. They also spend much time aboard the Kingfisher, calling at the village of Itchenor and chatting to the locals, at various points in the film. Several meals on board are filmed as is a large yacht race at the end of the film.

Bognor Regis-born Ralph Staley and his wife, Nellie, ran a High Street draper's shop in the Sussex sea-side town. He was a keen amateur film maker, starting as early as the 1910s, and over the next few decades filmed many of family events, outings, holidays and even trips abroad. He also filmed the local countryside, picnics, boating scenes and a holiday in Wales. A skilled cameraman, Ralph Staley often experimented with camera techniques like slow-motion and reverse action, as seen in this particular film, and also used, on occasion, an early colour movie film stock called Dufaycolor.