Rays is one of about 18 films made between 1940 and 1947 by Kenneth Raynor – Kenneth had earlier changed the spelling from its original ‘Rayner’.   Most of the films are of life in and around the village of Swallownest, 8 miles east of Sheffield.  Kenneth was born in Swallownest and brought up there by his parents in a terraced house in School Street. His father Gerald was the caretaker of the local school where his mother, Maud, was a cleaner – the school features regularly in the films, and...

Rays is one of about 18 films made between 1940 and 1947 by Kenneth Raynor – Kenneth had earlier changed the spelling from its original ‘Rayner’.   Most of the films are of life in and around the village of Swallownest, 8 miles east of Sheffield.  Kenneth was born in Swallownest and brought up there by his parents in a terraced house in School Street. His father Gerald was the caretaker of the local school where his mother, Maud, was a cleaner – the school features regularly in the films, and Kenneth too often makes an appearance (fuzzy dark hair and glasses – although not in this film). Kenneth trained as a chemist and was employed in a steelworks in Sheffield during the war, being registered as a conscientious objector. As a youngster Kenneth was an avid collector, keeping all his toys and comics, and later collecting books and records – which can be seen in his wartime Christmas films. 

As might be suspected from the beautiful shots in this film, Kenneth was also a photographer, taking portraits and wedding photos, always using the best equipment he could buy. Although extremely difficult to obtain, Kenneth managed to make colour films during the war – he may have got the film from Sheffield Photo Company who probably also supplied fellow filmmaker Bernard Hickling at this time (see Hickling Family During the War). All his films reveal a strong photographic eye; and these he used to show in his parent’s front room which had a permanent cine screen. The films give an extremely vivid picture of his family during and just after the war, including holidays abroad, as well as of local agriculture and village life. In particular Kenneth made some lovely intimate films of his family celebrating Christmas.

 

Although made during the war, like his other films from this period, there is little sign of a war going on. Despite being close to Sheffield and Rotherham, Swallownest is situated to the south in the parish of Aston, away from the large engineering and steel works, which of course were targets for German bombing raids. According to White's directory of 1833, Swallow Nest was the name of a Toll bar and public house, the home of a wheelwright, Mr. Ward.  The absence of any reference to the war may reflect Kenneth being a conscientious objector, a difficult stance to take, but one that was also taken by such notable figures as writer and feminist campaigner Vera Britten and composer Michael Tippet. 

 

There isn’t much evidence in these films of the local coal mining either. Yet Swallownest is located in a strong mining area, very near to Orgreave, the scene of a famous battle between miners and police during the 1984/5 strike. All the local mines are now closed: at the time of writing, September 2009, only 11 deep coal mines remain, when there were once 170. There are four still in Yorkshire, with Maltby Main the nearest to Swallownest – this was bought by Hargreaves Service from UK Coal in 2007, but estimates do not give it a long lifetime.

 

Kenneth Raynor displays in his films a greater interest in the surrounding countryside and farming, which can be seen in Rays. The film shows a reaper and binder in action, machines that were introduced into Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century. These not only cut the corn but also had a knotting mechanism so that the machine could tie the sheaves as well.  By 1944 many farms would have already replaced these with combine harvesters, which also threshes the crop – knocking out the grain from the ears of the corn.  This farm would have needed a separate threshing machine. This kind of agricultural machinery was introduced into Britain in the late nineteenth century from the U.S. and Canada, for where it had been earlier developed. 

 

Although the filming of Raynor gives to this work an idyllic appearance, working on these machines could be just as arduous and dangerous as working in the steelworks or down the mines. A fact that is brought home in the novels of Thomas Hardy; as in Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), where Hardy poetically describes steam threshing-machines with, ‘the inexorable wheels continuing to spin, and the penetrating hum of the thresher to thrill to the very marrow all who were near the revolving wire cage’ (p. 315/6).

 

It is revealing to note that Kenneth Raynor also left behind several films made by the Hungarian László Moholy-Nagy, including Marseille Vieux Port from 1929 and Urban Gypsies (Grossstadt-Zigeuner) from 1932; films that may well have enhanced his keen sense of the possibilities of photography and cine film. Maholy-Nagy, who died in 1946, was a highly influential artist who worked in many mediums, including photography and filmmaking, championing the work of the Bauhaus. How much Moholy-Nagy may have influenced Kenneth is open to speculation – they share a similar appreciation of how long to linger on any one shot – but the very fact of possessing such modernist films may tell us something of Raynor’s sensibility.  

 

That he had a strong photographic sense is perhaps most evident in this film in the portraits of the young people in the village, something that is possibly unique. The relaxed expressions on the faces of the ‘modern youth’ perhaps reveal that by 1944 the result of the war was already assured. Unfortunately, Kenneth was not able to enjoy the peace for long, or realise fully his own potential; dying of meningitis in 1947, aged just 29.    

 

References

 

Jon Layne (Kenneth Raynor’s nephew) has written a short biography of Kenneth which is held at the YFA.

Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, ed. S.Gatrell and J. Grindle, Oxford University Press, 1988.

Rachel Barker, Conscience, Government and War: Conscientious Objection in Great Britain, 1939-1945, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982.

The Museum of English Rural Life

Conscientious objection

Information on conscientious objection from the Quakers

For a good overview of László Moholy-Nagy see the article in the Guardian by Fiona MacCarthy, The fiery stimulator