Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 19043 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| SPORTS DAY | 1955 | 1955-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 2 mins 33 secs Credits: Clarke Chapman Marine Rolls Royce Industrial Power Group Genre: Amateur Subject: Sport |
| Summary This film is an amateur record of Gateshead firm Clarke Chapman and Company works sports day at Eslington Park, featuring men's tug o' war, men's long jump competition, women's sprint, and long distance competitors finishing. Includes group portraits and shots of the crowd. |
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Description
This film is an amateur record of Gateshead firm Clarke Chapman and Company works sports day at Eslington Park, featuring men's tug o' war, men's long jump competition, women's sprint, and long distance competitors finishing. Includes group portraits and shots of the crowd.
The film opens with a men's team pulling on a rope in a tug o' war contest. They lose the battle. A crowd of family, friends and work colleagues watch the event. The winning team pose for the...
This film is an amateur record of Gateshead firm Clarke Chapman and Company works sports day at Eslington Park, featuring men's tug o' war, men's long jump competition, women's sprint, and long distance competitors finishing. Includes group portraits and shots of the crowd.
The film opens with a men's team pulling on a rope in a tug o' war contest. They lose the battle. A crowd of family, friends and work colleagues watch the event. The winning team pose for the camera. A large marquee with spectators in front can be seen in the background. A close up of the men in the group follows.
The next event is the women's sprint, followed by a men's long jump event. Seven competitors attempt the jump.
Next, on another part of the field, the finish of a men's running contest is filmed. There's another more casual men's sprint, with most of these older men still in trousers. Group portraits of the men along with a woman in a frock follow.
Next a running event for the more conventional male athletes, who compete in a circuit race. An extensive crowd watches the progress of the race. It finishes with one competitor well ahead of the field. Others follow on past race officials who record their finishing position.
A general view follows of the crowds watching events from behind a rope barrier.
The film ends with a close view of an elderly gentleman sitting in a red armchair in front of a marquee with a silver cup, two women standing behind him.
[The Company was set up in 1864 at South Shore, Gateshead by William Clarke, engineer (formerly with the Bedlington Iron Company and Armstrongs of Elswick) and Edward Benning. From 1870 their partners were Joseph Watson and Joseph Gurney. In 1874 they moved to the Victoria Works and Captain William Chapman joined them about that time, followed in 1884 by Charles Parsons, who remained with them until 1889. On 14 June 1893, the Company was incorporated as a limited company, becoming known as Clarke Chapman and Company Limited.]
Context
This film is one of two films shot by amateurs (usually more than one cameraman) recording the British engineering firm Clarke Chapman and Company’s works sports day of 1955 held at Eslington Park, Gateshead, in sight of the Newcastle to Carlisle railway line. There was a high concentration of heavy engineering firms on Tyneside providing specialised equipment to railway, maritime, military, aircraft and nuclear industries in the 19th and 20th centuries and beyond. Other films in the Clarke...
This film is one of two films shot by amateurs (usually more than one cameraman) recording the British engineering firm Clarke Chapman and Company’s works sports day of 1955 held at Eslington Park, Gateshead, in sight of the Newcastle to Carlisle railway line. There was a high concentration of heavy engineering firms on Tyneside providing specialised equipment to railway, maritime, military, aircraft and nuclear industries in the 19th and 20th centuries and beyond. Other films in the Clarke Chapman’s collection held at the archive document the annual inter-company sports between Wright Anderson & Company Limited, Clarke Chapman, Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company Limited and Redheugh Iron & Steel Company in the 1950s and 60s.
In those days, companies of a particular size hosted family and competitive sports events as part of good industrial and community relations. Today you are more likely to have team building exercises or motivational days, linked to leadership skills and performance. This kind of ’industrial paternalism’ or philanthropic welfare started in Britain in the 19th century. Many manufacturing entrepreneurs and companies offered benefits to their workers, from sponsored sports teams, social clubs and other cultural activities to housing. Of course, fit and healthy workers would also be a productive workforce. Some examples include Cadbury, Rowntree, Lever Brothers and ICI. The film starts with a men's tug o' war, a sport that was once part of the Olympic Games from 1900 until 1920, and apparently there are tug of war clubs in many countries, where both men and women participate. There are obvious tactics; raw muscle power, a strong grip, digging in of feet to create static friction and a team rhythm all of which play an equally important role in gaining victory. We only see the losers succumbing here with the proud winners posing for their team photo. We next see the men's long jump competition, women's sprint, and long-distance competitors finishing with another much more casual men's sprint with these older men only having taken their jackets off. This clearly was sport for all, some athletes taking it very seriously and others competing just for fun. And it must have been a huge event to coordinate with the number of different track and field events, the programming of races, the necessary officials, and prizes awarded. We see some general views of the crowds watching the events from behind a rope barrier, all enjoying the activities, with little officialdom in evidence but with the event blessed with glorious sunshine. The Clarke Chapman Group was founded in a small factory at South Shore, Gateshead, in 1864 by the Victorian Sunderland-born entrepreneur William Clarke (1831-1890) and was joined by partner Able Chapman in 1965. The Tyne in those days was still a relatively clean river. Clarke Chapman was for many years one of the largest employers on Tyneside, and is still based in Gateshead at Saltmeadows Road having moved in 1994 from the Victoria Works, which is now a housing estate. In 1989, Northern Engineering Industries (NEI) and Rolls Royce plc merged, with Clarke Chapman becoming a part of the Rolls Royce Industrial Power Group. Today it has a number of divisions and product groups that include well-established names. Cowans Sheldon, a pioneer of modern railways, designing and producing state of the art multi-tasking cranes and related rail equipment. Stothert & Pitt, provides dockside and offshore crane technology services and support. Wellman Booth, is a leader in overhead travelling cranes used in power stations, ports, fuel reprocessing plants, aluminium plants, steelworks and nuclear facilities and Protran, is a specialist in liquefied compressed gases and other specialised liquids bulk transportation. Lastly, Mackley Pumps, design and manufacture positive displacement pumps for de-watering collieries. In 2000 Clarke Chapman was acquired from Rolls Royce by Langley Holdings plc, a privately owned engineering group based in the UK with principal operating divisions in Germany, France and the UK and more than 70 subsidiaries worldwide employing over 4000 people worldwide. Related NEFA films: Sports Day WACAR Annual Sports Day 1950 Eslington Park 1953 WACAR Sports (1954) References: http://www.clarkechapman.co.uk/en-GB/news/1259/langley-interim-trading-sthttps://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Quoits.htmatement https://www.britannica.com/sports/quoits Tyne & Wear Archives, Clarke Chapman Marine Rolls Royce Industrial Power Group Admin History |
