Amateur film of employees of the Newcastle department store, J. L. McAdam Limited, on a summer work outing to Otterburn Hall in June 1938. Footage includes fun and games in the grounds of Otterburn Hall. A convoy of staff cars are parked along a country road and the McAdam employees are milling around on the road and beside their cars. A woman runs up the road to join her three colleagues beside their car. A sequence of informal portraits follows that records employees, some with family...

Amateur film of employees of the Newcastle department store, J. L. McAdam Limited, on a summer work outing to Otterburn Hall in June 1938. Footage includes fun and games in the grounds of Otterburn Hall. A convoy of staff cars are parked along a country road and the McAdam employees are milling around on the road and beside their cars. A woman runs up the road to join her three colleagues beside their car. A sequence of informal portraits follows that records employees, some with family members, posing beside the cars, waving, smiling and speaking to the camera. The cars are lined up in a driveway, with an individual male member of staff standing to attention beside each car. The camera pans along the line and back again. Next, a large number of staff pose for a group portrait in front of Otterburn Hall. They banter and joke with each other, laugh and wave to camera, which pans across the group several times. Some of the men play mini golf on the lawn of the country house. A croquet match is in progress. A brief shot captures a woman sitting on the lawn and laughing, whilst a male colleague slips something into her open handbag as a prank. The film then records a sequence of individual portraits of some of the staff, posing and playing up to the camera in different ways. One mostly bald man sports a tuft of hair, tweaked upright in a comic fashion. He grins at camera and a colleague laughs in the background. General views capture the staff in informal groups, playing golf, strolling around the gardens and riding horses. Women ride towards camera on the backs of their male colleagues in a piggyback race. Some men and women take part in a chaotic wheelbarrow race, the women holding the men’s legs. Then, a raucous piggyback fight takes place on the lawn.