A home movie filmed by Geoff Richardson, a member of the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Society, in and around Whitley Bay that features the Spanish City fairground, St Mary’s Lighthouse and Island, and Newcastle Central Station. The film opens with a general view of a train leaving a station in the background and travelling along railway tracks past camera. A man is scything the trackside grass. He stops and rests on his scythe as the train passes. Men are working in a...

A home movie filmed by Geoff Richardson, a member of the Newcastle & District Amateur Cinematographers Society, in and around Whitley Bay that features the Spanish City fairground, St Mary’s Lighthouse and Island, and Newcastle Central Station. The film opens with a general view of a train leaving a station in the background and travelling along railway tracks past camera. A man is scything the trackside grass. He stops and rests on his scythe as the train passes. Men are working in a walled garden in the foreground left. There is a shot of a decorative pictorial flower bed celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, located in Whitley Bay promenade gardens with the War Memorial in the background, shot from Watt’s Road. “Long Live the Queen” is spelled out in flowers. Various brief shots of the white Spanish City Dome, the former Empress Ballroom, the grand entrance to the seaside resort fairground and entertainment complex, taken from Empress Gardens, with the Cenotaph visible on the right. Next, there is a high angle shot of a band of bagpipers performing on a seafront park off The Links. Groups of people are watching the performance at the edge of a sunken arena. People are walking on lawns in front of the background Spanish City fairgrounds. Next, there are various brief south and north facing views of a crowded Whitley Bay, its beach, sea, two tier promenades and seafront buildings. Waves crash onto the rock platforms on the coast near St Mary’s Lighthouse. A headland is in the background. People are standing on the rocks watching the stormy sea. Three schoolboys on a rock run away as a wave crashes onto the rock. A high angle shot records a large crowd surrounding the temporary catwalk and stage for the Woman’s Mirror beauty contest. A woman parades on the catwalk. Another contestant, with her number 5 displayed, talks to the compere on the tiny stage booth. Two more young women parade on the catwalk watched by the audience. There is a very brief rural scene with a small agricultural tractor in a field of partially harvested corn. Customers come and go, and relax, outside Trinity Cottage, St Mary’s Island, at the north end of Whitley Bay. People walk down the path from the stone cottage, beside the sea. There are views of a cliff top path and St Mary’s Lighthouse. People stroll through gardens and look at the walled pond with a fountain. Café tables and chairs with parasols are set up outside a modern pavilion with lawns in front. From a high viewpoint over cottage rooftops, there is a shot of a small walled harbour and moored sailing and fishing boats. Fishing nets are drying on a long line of special racks. There are views across the sea of the causeway and St Mary’s Lighthouse standing on its rocky island. Two small children are at the water’s edge with the lighthouse in the background. Shots of gulls on the sea follow. People walk on the lawns in front of the white Spanish City buildings and dome. A young boy appears in shot and is then seen walking off in his short trousers towards Spanish City. People move around the busy Newcastle Central Station concourse. Two men in suits walk towards the camera. Next, a train pulls out of the station at a railway junction with multiple tracks and signal box to the right. The film closes with further shots of a passenger train passing by platforms.