Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 20016 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
YORKSHIRE RIVIERA | 1958 | 1958-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: Standard 8 Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 18 mins 33 secs Credits: Individuals: Raymond Kitching Genre: Amateur Subject: Seaside Architecture |
Summary An amateur film made by Middlesbrough filmmaker Raymond Kitching of the North Yorkshire coast from Redcar to Scarborough. |
Description
An amateur film made by Middlesbrough filmmaker Raymond Kitching of the North Yorkshire coast from Redcar to Scarborough.
The film opens with a view of the South Gare breakwater at Teesmouth from Coatham beach, with views of a lighthouse and beach, seashore and sea fishermen.
Title: Redcar
Children and adults board a small boat from a mobile gang plank, which has a flag flying. Flags adorn the boat at the prow and the stern. Adults and children push the small boat out to sea. A long shot...
An amateur film made by Middlesbrough filmmaker Raymond Kitching of the North Yorkshire coast from Redcar to Scarborough.
The film opens with a view of the South Gare breakwater at Teesmouth from Coatham beach, with views of a lighthouse and beach, seashore and sea fishermen.
Title: Redcar
Children and adults board a small boat from a mobile gang plank, which has a flag flying. Flags adorn the boat at the prow and the stern. Adults and children push the small boat out to sea. A long shot of two of the tour boats out at sea and then children adults gather at the shoreline to help the boat back to shore. The passengers disembark and walk down the mobile gang plank. A scene on the beach follows, where children being led on donkeys come past the tour boats on the shoreline then towards the camera. Older children help the mothers and fathers make sure the younger children on the donkey ride safely. Children and adults help the young ones off the donkeys. A change of scene shows a motorised 'train' giving rides to children and adults across the beach. It heads towards the cinema building on the sea front which can be seen in the distance and then turns to make a return journey. A small roundabout entertains very young children. The boating lake is a big attraction at Redcar small boats and canoes populate it as youngsters and adults exercise their paddling and rowing skills. A clear view of the ornamental bridge which crosses part of the lake can be seen. A canoe is paddle expertly by two men towards the camera. Two girls in a rowing boat nearly have a collision with a canoe!
Title: Saltburn
A shot of Huntcliff and the beach, then the road leading down to the beach with traffic. A boy defeated by the steepness of the hill walks his bike up the hill towards the camera. Many models of pre-war and early post war cars can be seen as they negotiate the hill down to the seaside. A Morris Minor traveller is picked out by the camera. As we watch the progress of cars down the hill, glimpses of a crowded beach and shoreline come into view. At the top of the hill above the cliff railway the full length of Saltburn pier is seen. Saltburn's famous cliff railway is seen as one of the cars descends to the lower promenade at the same time the other car travels to the top. Young children play in small pools on the beach. Two boys play with a football or beach ball. Others build structures in the sand, creating a small dam and filling behind it with sea water. Other children play on colourful swing boats at a fairground. Some older girls watch the waltzers.
Title: Staithes
A view of Staithes from the top of the steep bank which leads into the village and harbour, We watch the traffic moving through the village. Tourists walk past the Royal George Inn in the cobbled High Street. A Morris Traveller travels in the opposite direction. Traffic goes slowly past the harbour area. Two girls in bare feet gingerly walk down a cobbled slipway towards the sea. Shots follow of a fairly rough sea followed by a view towards the harbour with a few small boats tied up at the entrance. A view from further into the harbour shows two boats on land at the top of a slipway. Other boats are seen moored in the harbour. Most of the boats are small rowing boats (fishing cobles?).
Title: Runswick Bay
An opening view of the bay from the cliff top shows a few sailing boats on a deep blue sea. On the beach small boats are pulled out of the sea near the shoreline. Another boat is preparing to go out to sea. The following shot shows two boats being rowed out to sea. A small motorboat takes an inshore tour. Two girls sitting on a rock paddle their feet in the sea. Another boat takes a group of passengers for a tour around the bay. Two children play on an inflatable 'LiLo'.
Title: Whitby
A long shot of Whitby with the River Esk in foreground, opens the film, followed by a view of East Cliff with the church of St Mary's at the top in the harbour we see the lifeboat station. Herring boats are moored in the harbour, with other fishing vessels. Fishermen work on board some of the vessels as they prepare to go out to sea. The camera shows boats leaving the harbour. Another view of the abbey and church on East Cliff and the surrounding area. A road sign for ‘Church Lane.' shows us the famous steps leading up to the abbey. A couple approach the steps as the prepare to embark on the long climb at the top. Others follow on the steep route the top. At the top, a closer shot of the clock tower of St Mary's Church. A close up of an ornate cross in the churches graveyard shows the skilled carving. The ruins of the abbey show one of the great windows the camera capturing the details of the moulding on the windows. Another street sign 'Khyber Pass' which is a well known view point of Whitby. Another sign for ‘Khyber Pass’ and we watch traffic driving up a steep hill with cars parked along the roadside.
Title: Robin Hood’s Bay
View of the bay from the cliff top an advertising sign for Wall's (ice cream?) adorns a building in the middle of the picture. A group of people make their way down the steep hill past the Midland Bank to the village. Steps help the progress downhill. A path leads to the Laurel Inn. Sea waves break on the shore and two children watch the waves from a seabreak. they try and dodge the stronger waves as they hit the seabreak. A boy on the shoreline stands firm against the waves.
Title: Scarborough
This sequence features a cliff top view of Scarborough, then immediately to the town's cliff railway next to the Grand Hotel. The car descends and passes the other car as it approaches the top. The descending car slows down as it approaches the end of its journey. A small motor boat embarks on a pleasure trip with its passengers. A view of the harbour follows with its many fishing boats, and seagulls wheeling around above them. A rowing boat with passengers leaves the harbour. On the beach small children enjoy a donkey ride. Another rowing boat leaves the shore with its passengers. Children help to push the boat off the shore. Further out to sea pleasure steamers entertain their passengers. One comes into a jetty on the harbour to pick up passengers. Swing boats attract youngsters to a small fairground on the beach. A tower and gatehouse building on Marine Drive comes into view. Colourful boats on the boating lake attract small children who want to try their hand at rowing and cranking the paddle boats. A steam train on the miniature railway comes into view, with passengers enjoying their ride through the landscaped gardens, it moves away from the camera, and ends the film.
Title: The End
Context
A sightseer’s seaside paradise
A nostalgic dip and drive around the North Yorkshire coast in the sun-kissed 50s.
Trains, boats, cars and funiculars are a recurring motif as Middlesbrough filmmaker Raymond Kitching takes us down to the salty, seafaring North Yorkshire coast. This scenic travelogue heads from South Gare to Scarborough sampling the seaside rituals and rides. There’s foying in Redcar, the Coney Island of Cleveland, a stylish descent to Saltburn beach to stroll on the elegant...
A sightseer’s seaside paradise
A nostalgic dip and drive around the North Yorkshire coast in the sun-kissed 50s. Trains, boats, cars and funiculars are a recurring motif as Middlesbrough filmmaker Raymond Kitching takes us down to the salty, seafaring North Yorkshire coast. This scenic travelogue heads from South Gare to Scarborough sampling the seaside rituals and rides. There’s foying in Redcar, the Coney Island of Cleveland, a stylish descent to Saltburn beach to stroll on the elegant pier, and a higgledy-piggledy, quaint confusion of red roofs at Robin Hood’s Bay. The film concludes in the grand dame of Yorkshire seaside resorts, Scarborough, with shots of the old funicular railway beside the Grand Hotel, pleasure steamers, boating in Peasholm Park, and a ride on the Miniature North Bay Railway, opened in 1931. There’s no sign in Kitching’s film of Redcar’s boisterous reputation. A 1930 Cleveland Standard ‘gossip’ feature was sniffy about the behaviour of female day trippers to the resort, suggesting ‘some of the women from the pit country merely visit the seaside to indulge in a ‘wet’ afternoon and make themselves a nuisance and an eyesore’. By contrast, neighbouring Saltburn, with its streets named after jewels, once catered only for the moneyed class and still retains a reputation for exclusiveness. In the 1970s, a Middlesbrough man referred to the seaside town as ‘where the five bob snobs live’. The travelogue has a rich and complex relationship with early cinema, from the Lumière brothers’ first screening in Paris in 1895 to contemporary Imax spectacles and the personal tours posted on You Tube (heirs to the home movie). According to the OED, the first recorded use of the term was the London Daily Chronicle report of 6-7 April 1903 that ‘Mr Burton Holmes, an American entertainer new to London, delivered last evening the first of a series of “Travelogues”, no doubt referring to a popular pre-cinematic form of synchronised mixed-media lecture entertainment, from which the virtual travel of the travelogue film evolved. |