This film is from a collection of fifteen made by Sheffield amateur filmmaker Kenneth Tofield held with the YFA.  Kenneth first started making films in the mid-1930s and continued into the 1960s.  Almost half of the films in the collection were made in the single year of 1945. Half of these are in black and white and half in Kodachrome colour film.  It isn’t known whether the films in black and white, like this one, were made after Tofield obtained colour film, possibly later in the year....

This film is from a collection of fifteen made by Sheffield amateur filmmaker Kenneth Tofield held with the YFA.  Kenneth first started making films in the mid-1930s and continued into the 1960s.  Almost half of the films in the collection were made in the single year of 1945. Half of these are in black and white and half in Kodachrome colour film.  It isn’t known whether the films in black and white, like this one, were made after Tofield obtained colour film, possibly later in the year.  This may be the case because there was heavy snow in Yorkshire in January 1945, and then not again until January 1947; which was of course a famously bad winter.  Many, if not all, of his films feature snow, skiing and occasionally skating. It would be surprising if he didn’t film the 1947 winter as well, although the next film in the collection held by the YFA isn’t until 1953, In My Garden.   More about Tofield can be found in the Contexts for this film and Skating and Snow (1936-1953).

As with his other films, Tofield shows in this film a great eye for natural settings: it wouldn’t be surprising if he had deliberately filmed this on black and white film stock with this in mind.  As with many other films of heavy snow held with the YFA, those filmed in black and white seem to capture the atmosphere that this creates, whether it is a country landscape or houses covered in snow – it adds to the egalitarian quality of snow.  Before the age of TV, and well before the filming of natural landscapes became common, it must have been special, for example, to catch the shape of the looming clouds as they mirror the outline of the snow covered wall.  The figures too, as with the two women at sunrise in long black coats set against the total whiteness, become much starker. 

In fact the film is reminiscent of some scenes from fictional films of the era, such as Northern Pursuit starring Errol Flynn, made two years earlier.  And the black figure stumbling against the white background of overhanging snow evokes the kind of existential musings that also characterise the post-war period and its literature.  Of course, the same kind of scene can be flipped to give a lighter comic feel, as with the stand-off snowball fight, and the excited Cairn Terrier desperate to join in.

The Peak District has traditionally been a favoured place to go walking for Sheffielders, and the Kinder Scout area – where our walkers are – in particular.  Tofield was probably wealthy enough to own a car – the group of people appear to be reasonably well off – but they could have caught a train out to the nearby village of Edale.  This is of course where the Pennine Way starts, although this wasn’t opened until 1965.

What gives some of the film a rather surreal look is the fact that the people out walking, and stumbling, in the snow aren’t wearing any specialist rambling clothing, apart from a couple of them wearing boots.  This was of course before the days when there was much in the way of specialist clothing – and doubtless the war used up most suitable clothing going – but even so, it appears as if this group were occasional walkers rather than seasoned ramblers. 

The pre-war period had seen a boom in rambling, and this was continued after the war when many rambling clubs were set up.  Kinder Scout was of course made famous by the mass trespass there in 1932 as part of a campaign for walkers’ rights.   The previous year the National Council of Ramblers Federations was established, and on 1st January 1935 the Ramblers Association was created: appropriately given that New Year’s Day is often favoured as a day to get out into the open countryside.  By the following year the organisation had 1,200 members and 300 affiliated clubs.

But the beginnings of rambling as a pastime go back well before this, at least back to the late 18th century when it was associated with the Romantic movement.  A campaign to preserve ancient footpaths soon followed, and in 1876 the Hayfield and Kinderscout Ancient Footpaths Association was formed.  In fact the Sheffield Rambling Club (not to be confused with the Sheffield Ramblers) trace their origins to the 1890s when the Countrywide Holidays Association – a national organisation operating walking holidays – was formed.  Today there are over 500 local rambling groups with a total of 110,000 members – see also the Context for The Rothwell Ramblers (1979).

References

Historical weather events

The Peak and Northern Footpaths Association, History

The Ramblers