Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 19044 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| SPORTS DAY | 1955 | 1955-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 3 mins 53 secs Credits: Sponsor: Clarke Chapman Genre: Amateur Subject: Sport |
| Summary This film is an amateur record of a Clarke Chapman and Company works sports day in Gateshead, probably at Eslington Park. |
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Description
This film is an amateur record of a Clarke Chapman and Company works sports day in Gateshead, probably at Eslington Park.
The film opens with a view of a boys' race as the contestants run in marked lanes away from the camera to the finish. The boys' finishing positions are checked by race officials.
Another children's race, for the girls this time. Again their finishing positions are checked by race officials. One girl seems to have hurt her leg.
An official in a white coat...
This film is an amateur record of a Clarke Chapman and Company works sports day in Gateshead, probably at Eslington Park.
The film opens with a view of a boys' race as the contestants run in marked lanes away from the camera to the finish. The boys' finishing positions are checked by race officials.
Another children's race, for the girls this time. Again their finishing positions are checked by race officials. One girl seems to have hurt her leg.
An official in a white coat starts anoother boys' race. They run past the camera and on towards the finish line. A number of prizes are displayed on the grass, including toys and hats.
General views from behind the spectators barrier show the field where the games are taking place, and the conclusion of another race.
Refereshments are being sold near a marquee. Thirsty children queue to buy soft drinks.
Another race starts. This time the race is an egg and spoon relay race with men and women partnering up. The competitors finish with only one egg casualty.
The film cuts to a more serious course race for the male athletes. Spectators urge runners on as they approach the finish. Next another race on the course for another group of male athletes.
A women's race follows. General views show the spectators behind the rope barrier enjoying the contests and the sunshine.
Away from the athletics track, a quoits contest takes place.
The film cuts to a group of boys watching the events on the field, then to a second works photographer filming the action. A close-up follows of one of the athletes and the film ends as a couple sit on the grass, while a toddler wearing a sun hat walks across to join them.
Context
This film is one of two films shot by amateurs (usually more than one) 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...
This film is one of two films shot by amateurs (usually more than one) 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 old egg spoon race is probably now described as retro or nostalgic, but as we can see in the film, it is great fun and still a tricky balancing act for both adults and children to master. Here the sports day was designed to be an inclusive family day out and so we see children of all ages competing in their everyday summer clothes and also some serious track racing by people who would probably now take part in fun runs or marathons. Especially interesting are the shots of playing Quoits, seemingly in a muddy corner of the field. It is a game in which players toss rings at a stake, called the hob embedded in areas of soft clay or as seen here scooped out circles of mud. The rings are usually made of iron, but rope or rubber rings are also used. Debates on its origins differ, possibly played in Roman Britain or it may have been developed in medieval Britain, when peasants used bent horseshoes into rings and threw them at iron pegs. Whatever the origin, it seems to have been associated with agricultural and working-class people, in particular with the mining industry. Quoits were probably made from poor-quality left-over metal from mine forges and this could be why main areas of quoit playing seem to have centred around mining communities. 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), 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 |
