Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 5238 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
NORTHUMBRIAN MEMORIES | 1957 | 1957-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 19 mins 30 secs Subject: Transport Seaside Architecture |
Summary This is a film made by John Edward (‘Ted’) Warburton, a member of Halifax Cine Club, of a family holiday to Northumbria in 1957. They visit many of the tourist attractions of the county, including Brunton Castle, Beadnell Bay, Bamburgh, Crumstone, Farne Islands and Holy Island. |
Description
This is a film made by John Edward (‘Ted’) Warburton, a member of Halifax Cine Club, of a family holiday to Northumbria in 1957. They visit many of the tourist attractions of the county, including Brunton Castle, Beadnell Bay, Bamburgh, Crumstone, Farne Islands and Holy Island.
Title, ‘Northumbrian Memories’, displayed over a map of the Farne Island.
Title – Photographed and Produced by J E Warburton.
The film begins with a car journey being filmed from the front seat along a country...
This is a film made by John Edward (‘Ted’) Warburton, a member of Halifax Cine Club, of a family holiday to Northumbria in 1957. They visit many of the tourist attractions of the county, including Brunton Castle, Beadnell Bay, Bamburgh, Crumstone, Farne Islands and Holy Island.
Title, ‘Northumbrian Memories’, displayed over a map of the Farne Island.
Title – Photographed and Produced by J E Warburton.
The film begins with a car journey being filmed from the front seat along a country road.
Intertitle – Travelling north we called at Hexham to see the Abbey.
They tour the Abbey, setting out from a nearby car park. There is a sign for ‘The Moot Hall, housing the Brough Library’. They then continue on their car journey.
Intertitle – On to Chollerford where we visited the site of Chesters and Brunton Castle on Hadrian’s Wall.
They look at the exhibits in a museum, after which two women and a man tour some ruins, there is a sign for ‘North Gateway’, and then on to the Brunton Turrent of the Roman Wall. They continue their car journey.
Intertitle – Beadnell Bay is another ideal resort but evidences the tragedy of storm at sea.
People are paddling in the sea at the bay where boats are moored. A broken ship lies derelict and rusting on the rocks. They continue their car journey.
Intertitle – Bamburgh is a quiet seaside hamlet boasting a glorious castle and pleasing beach.
The group walk over the rocks on the coast, where a boy peers into the pools of water. They visit the castle, and see an antelope painted on the side of a rock.
Intertitle – The Chillingham herd of white cattle roams 600 acres of Lord Tankerville’s estate. This pedigree white herd is wild – wild since the days of the Druids.
A sign points to the cattle in a field, which they then visit and film.
Intertitle – Seahouses, a thriving little fishing port, is also the starting point for the Farne Islands.
They wander around the harbour where the fishing boats are moored, some having returned with their catch, and with lines of crab boxes.
Intertitle – On our way to see the birds breeding on Staple Isles we passed Brownman and the Longtone Light, both part of the history of Grace Darling.
They take a boat trip out to sea, passing a red and white striped lighthouse. A map shows their destination of the Farne Islands. They pass an old house on one of the small islands, and rocks covered in cormorants and other sea birds. They stop off on one of the islands and film several nests with eggs in them. They continue their boat journey.
Intertitle – Crumstone is the breeding ground of the grey seal.
They pass dozens of seals swimming in the sea near to the island. They then visit the Abbey on Lindasfarne and the other ruins on Holy Island, including the Priory. They move on to Houseteads Roman Fort and walk around the site as the film comes to a close.
Title – The End
Context
This family tour of Northumbria in 1957 might very well serve as a marvellous tourist film, only it is much more than that. As well as providing a wonderful trek of Northumbrian historic places, with a trip to Seahouses and the Farne Islands, it also gives the social historian an eye into a time when for many from the city getting out to the countryside by car was a novelty. The use of Kodachrome film adds to the post-war atmosphere.
This is one of many fine films made in Kodachrome by...
This family tour of Northumbria in 1957 might very well serve as a marvellous tourist film, only it is much more than that. As well as providing a wonderful trek of Northumbrian historic places, with a trip to Seahouses and the Farne Islands, it also gives the social historian an eye into a time when for many from the city getting out to the countryside by car was a novelty. The use of Kodachrome film adds to the post-war atmosphere.
This is one of many fine films made in Kodachrome by Halifax Cine Club member Ted Warburton, mainly of his family outings in the 1950s and ‘60s. This film was produced around the time that British Transport was making excellent travelogue films and John Betjeman was making his Discovering Britain films for Shell, in 1955 and 1956. But it was before TV had really started making travelogues, which presented opportunities in the genre for amateur filmmakers and their local audiences. Halifax Cine Club was one of many with skilled members, such as Ted Warburton, who specialised in travelogues. Most of what is shown in the film remains unchanged. |