An amateur film produced by Donald Oates that records a trip to carry out a cartographic survey around the River North Tyne at Bellingham in Northumberland in March 1941 with staff and students of King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne. Title: King’s College Bellingham Survey March 1941 Title: Headquarters at the Riverdale Hotel Title: Riverdale! Here we come Students arrive at their hotel in Bellingham by coach. Title: Levelling near Riverdale Some of the students are on the road...

An amateur film produced by Donald Oates that records a trip to carry out a cartographic survey around the River North Tyne at Bellingham in Northumberland in March 1941 with staff and students of King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne. Title: King’s College Bellingham Survey March 1941 Title: Headquarters at the Riverdale Hotel Title: Riverdale! Here we come Students arrive at their hotel in Bellingham by coach. Title: Levelling near Riverdale Some of the students are on the road outside the Riverdale Hotel, already starting their survey with their surveyor’s tripod in position. Title: Mr Spark returns to work A teacher strides down the road in a Knickerbocker suit, smoking a pipe. He tips his hat to the camera. Title: More levelling The students are out along the road with their land survey equipment set up. One man strides through the shallow river holding two ranging poles. The group use various methods to take readings and then watch one of their number on a makeshift raft on the river transporting a cylindrical can. One of the students rides past the hotel on a motorbike, wearing a top hat and fake white beard. A friend grins outside the hotel gateway. He stops and poses for the camera stroking his beard. Another student wearing a flat cap strides through the grounds of the hotel. Back outside and a duo of students survey the land recording their readings. A general view follows of a road near Bellingham in heavy snow. The surveying continues with various students taking part. One man holds a very tall ranging pole out in the landscape as a fellow student takes readings using tripod, transit level and surveying scope. After their work, the group wander back to the Riverdale Hotel. Out in the gardens of the hotel, Mr Spark now conducts a big gang of King College students and staff, possibly also hotel staff, in a sing song. Some of the group laugh and share a joke with each other. One of the staff leaves the hotel, tipping his hat to camera as he steps out of an entrance. In a snow storm now, they all stroll to the coach carrying suitcases and pack in their survey equipment.