ICI Billingham Film Unit cine magazine of three features that describe the results of the Safety Competition, the election of the new Club Chairman, and the annual Flower and Vegetable show. The final item previews the new Apprentice School with a look at some of its first pupils. Title: Just Billingham No.6 September 1946 Photography: Sydney Boyle Script: Norman Commentary spoken by Frank Phillips. Title: Safety Competition - Winning Sections receive prizes. Commentary: “Introduced by...

ICI Billingham Film Unit cine magazine of three features that describe the results of the Safety Competition, the election of the new Club Chairman, and the annual Flower and Vegetable show. The final item previews the new Apprentice School with a look at some of its first pupils. Title: Just Billingham No.6 September 1946 Photography: Sydney Boyle Script: Norman Commentary spoken by Frank Phillips. Title: Safety Competition - Winning Sections receive prizes. Commentary: “Introduced by Deputy Safety Officer Sam Birch, Dr Saunders, Works General Manager, presented prizes to winning sections in the recent safety competition. Representing the Safety Committee, who played a big part in the success of the competition, Bill Blackwood handed out two special prizes. The competition was won by Plasterboard & Gypsum Plant and was keenly contested in the latter stages. The money prizes will go to the social sections of the groups concerned.” Title: At the Club– New Council in action “Club Secretary Harold Lodge opens the first meeting of the newly elected executive council”. A paper ballot is held to elect the new chairman: Granville Lee Hewitt. Title: Billingham Gardeners Hold Annual Show Three men deliver a trailer of garden produce, passing by an expensive looking car. One of the men enters a house carrying two bunches of enormous leeks. Close-up of the Annual Flower and Vegetable Show flyer, dated "Sat 7th Sept: 1946". More huge leeks are brought past the camera. Commentary: “The exhibits await the critical inspection of the judges”. Next, there is a close-up montage of carrots, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, and onions. The judges then peruse the produce. One of them, Mr Brooks, the commentary informs, is a member of the National Chrysanthemum Society. Visitors and competitors are then seen visiting the show. Mr Ray, Personnel Director of the Division, Vice-President of the Gardening Section offers his complements to competitors before Mr Scow presents the trophies. Title: Introduction to Industry This section opens with overhead views of the factory floor showing benches with vices, and heavy machinery. Outdoor scenes of huge silos and complicated networks of pipes. “It’s big. Everything about it is big”. The film cuts to a close-up of a confused looking young man with slick Brylcreem hair. A series of shots of large scale industrial equipment follow, each time cutting back to the increasingly bewildered looking young man. Interior views of the Apprentices Training School situated in the old PIAT gun shop. Machinery and equipment is sanded down and painted. There is a close-up of a smoking workman. Several shots show how “busy hands remove evidence of the months of preparation”. A man in a flat cap and coat summons another individual by wagging his finger. Harry White, the School Supervisor, is called in. Bill Stephenson and Harry Fletcher are the two instructors. The film documents the properly equipped machine shop where boys will be taught the elements of machine work after having spent four months working at the bench. There are views of the lecture room, and a shot of a pencil and notepad on a desk, “yes, everything is ready”. Bill Stephenson meets the first ever group of apprentices to use the School from the Process Offices. Boys push bicycles. Commentary: "The beginning of a job which will be theirs for life". Harry White demonstrates on the blackboard the relation of the apprenticeship programme to working life. View of the boys in class. The boys are given a tour of the school and shown working machines. This is followed by a tour of the factory. Major Bansall, Education Officer, explains the workings of the Billingham transport system. A boy smiles. The boys are then shown the sub-stores, organised as miniature versions of the main stores. Title: A Billingham Film