Amateur footage by a senior manager at ICI Billingham of young men's individual and group gymnastic displays at ICI Billingham Synthonia Club sports ground, intercut with summer gymnastics training at campsites in Gilling West and Brompton on Swale, North Yorkshire, between 1959 and 1962. Gymnastics displays take place on Billingham Gala Day in 1958 and 1961. Also includes group and individual portraits of young men and women gymnasts in June 1962, some of competing team from Scotland....

Amateur footage by a senior manager at ICI Billingham of young men's individual and group gymnastic displays at ICI Billingham Synthonia Club sports ground, intercut with summer gymnastics training at campsites in Gilling West and Brompton on Swale, North Yorkshire, between 1959 and 1962. Gymnastics displays take place on Billingham Gala Day in 1958 and 1961. Also includes group and individual portraits of young men and women gymnasts in June 1962, some of competing team from Scotland. Two young male gymnasts and a child sunbathe in a field. People queue to buy ice creams at a DiPaolo's ice cream van. Children and adults are relaxing in the sun out in the countryside. A young man peels vegetables outside a canvas tent. Young men practice gymnastic somersaults in a field, canvas tents in the background. A group of young men are served and eat food in a field where they are camping. The scene cuts to a country lane, where the wife of the filmmaker and her two young children, Susan and Jonathon, are picking wild flowers from a hedgerow in the countryside near Gilling West campsite, Richmond, North Yorkshire. Next, young men perform group gymnastic displays on a vaulting horse, probably at the Billingham Synthonia Club sports ground during Billingham Gala Day, 1959. Various shots of young men training on a pommel horse with an instructor out at a summer training camp. Young gymnasts practice on a small trampoline. Young men and boys load the gymnastics apparatus onto the back of a lorry parked in the campsite field. Various cars are also in shot. Three of the young gymnast trainees stand at an open fire where food is cooking in large metal pots. The young men continue to load the gymnastics equipment onto the lorry. Close-up of three large bowls containing different salad vegetables laying on the grass. Some of the young gymnasts relax on the grass and eat. At the Synthonia Club sports ground, young men are taking part in gymnastics displays, performing in front of a small audience seated beside the ground. Includes leaping over a vaulting horse through a hoop held by a girl. Some of the gymnasts lark around and practice some of their gymnastic moves. Both girls and young men practice warm-up exercises on a rugby pitch at ICI Billingham. Various group portraits of the young men and women gymnasts with their trainers follow. Portrait shots of individual gymnasts. Footage of gymnastics practice at the summer training camp using parallel bars, at Brompton on Swale campsite. Next, sunlit shots of some young male gymnasts practicing on parallel bars inside Billingham  sports gym, in November 1962. A very young boy plays on the sports hall floor. Close-up of his father holding the boy in his arms, the boy looking straight to camera. Notes: This is one of three films made by a senior manager in ICI who ran, as a spare time interest, a gymnastics section in the Billingham Synthonia Club.  Film making was another amateur interest of his and, amongst many family films, he made several of sports events in which he was involved.  The films were donated by his younger brother, George Bridger, also then a senior ICI Manager.