This film is part of the ‘Fisher Collection’.  The two other films from this collection that the YFA have are, Bradford Under Snow (1910s), made by HP Limited, and Bradford City v Newcastle United (1911), made by Pathe Freres.  The BFI also has one of their films from 1913, Rothwell Infirmary Procession Sunday July 20th.  It is not clear exactly when the film was made, and we can only speculate why the film is titled, The West Riding Of Yorkshire, when all the places featured in the film are...

This film is part of the ‘Fisher Collection’.  The two other films from this collection that the YFA have are, Bradford Under Snow (1910s), made by HP Limited, and Bradford City v Newcastle United (1911), made by Pathe Freres.  The BFI also has one of their films from 1913, Rothwell Infirmary Procession Sunday July 20th.  It is not clear exactly when the film was made, and we can only speculate why the film is titled, The West Riding Of Yorkshire, when all the places featured in the film are in the North Riding of Yorkshire! 

Most early films, pre 1910, are what are called actuality films: these are films of local people in street scenes, or coming out of factories or football matches, which would often be shown the same day that they were shot.  So it is unusual to have film of rural settings, and this is perhaps an early example of an attempt to capture aspects of the history and beauty of Yorkshire on moving image.  The film certainly takes in an interesting selection of the facets of North Yorkshire.

It will be seen that the film is tinted.  Film tinting is an early technical process of adding color to black-and-white film, usually by means of soaking the film in dye and staining the film emulsion.  Here the film has been tinted slightly yellowish in the first scenes in York and bluish in the water scenes.  This practice was fairly common at the time – before the advent of colour film – in order to produce a mood or atmosphere in keeping with the subject matter of the film.  So yellow would be used for urban scenes, green for countryside and blue for rivers or the sea.  There was already developed at this time – in the 1910s and 1920s – a colour method, Pathécolor, using a stencil and skilled colourists.  But this was time intensive and expensive.  So tinting and toning were common.  The process is neatly explained by Leo Enticknap: ‘Tinting is the application of a layer of dye that is absorbed by the gelatine ‘subbing layer’ which binds the emulsion to the base, resulting in the light or clear areas of the picture taking on the colour of the tinting dye.  Examples include Amaranth for red, Quinoline for yellow and Naphthol for blue.  Toning is the application of a dye that reacts with the metallic silver which forms the emulsion, resulting in dark or opaque areas of the picture taking on the colour of the toning dye.  Examples include Prussian Blue, Chrysoidine for brown.’ (Moving Image Technology, p. 77: see References).  By the early 1920s pre-tinted film accounted for 80-90 % of commercial release printing.

The Ridings of Yorkshire go back a long time in history: to the Danish Viking invasion of 886 AD establishing the Kingdom of Jórvík, which lasted some 100 years.  This included parts of what became Lancashire and Northumbria.  The historic boundaries of Yorkshire subsequently became the River Tees in the north, the Humber Estuary, the River Don and the River Sheaf in the south and the slopes of the Pennines in the West.  The name of Yorkshire comes from York, the major town of Northern England during early and medieval times.  The word ‘shire’ derives from the old Saxon word Seyran, to divide, dating back to when Alfred the Great divided up the Kingdom – or those parts he gained control of – in the second half of the ninth century.  The word ‘riding’ comes from Norse þriðjungr, meaning a third; and these administrative units were subdivided into smaller ones called wapentakes.  West Riding is bounded in the north by a line that starts at York in the east, and which slopes north west as far as Sedbergh and Howgill Fells.  The Ridings were made into County Councils in 1888, not losing this status until the local government re-organisation in 1972-4. 

The film begins in York with the Minster.  The Minster at York owes its beginnings to the baptism of the Anglo Saxon King, Edwin of Northumbria on Easter Sunday in the year 627.  But the existing Minster dates initially from around 1080, after a Danish invasion had destroyed the original church, when Thomas of Bayeux became Archbishop and ordered the building of a cathedral that was eventually finished in 1100.  However, it wasn’t until 1472 that the Minster we see today, with its three towers, was complete.  It is described both as the largest Gothic church in England, and the largest Gothic cathedral in Northern Europe – a claim also made for Cologne Cathedral. The official title is ‘the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York’ – a cathedral being the site of a bishop’s throne (a cathedral) – but York Minster retains it original title because the word ‘cathedral’ did not come into use until after the Norman conquest of 1066.

The "Waterfall at Hardraur Scraur" is in fact Hardraw Force, near Hawes, at 99 feet England's highest waterfall.  This spelling is, presumably, Old English or Old Norse for Hardraw Scar – ‘scar’ meaning rock or crag – although it is not listed in the authoritative The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire, where Hardrawe is identified as Old English (see References).
Richmond Castle is one of the earliest stone castles in England, dating from 1071.  Like the cathedrals, castles of this type were brought into England by the Norman conquest.  Quite understandably they were resented by the English as they were built for the purpose of controlling the population, and keeping those in control, or put into control, secure.  Richmond Castle was no exception, the land being given to Alan the Red a supporter of William the Conqueror.  In fact Richmond Castle never really saw any military action, and from the early 16th century became derelict, though it was partly restored in the nineteenth century.  Nevertheless it has the unique feature of having two different kinds of keep: Scolland's Hall, an early French style 11th century keep, and a larger four storey keep built in the 12th century.

The mill at Hawes in the film is no longer there, and has been ecplipsed by the more well-known Gayle Mill, just upstream. built around 1776, was one of the first cotton mills powered by a water wheel, also processing flax and wool.  At the time the film was made it was probably functioning as a sawmill, although the wheel might not be powering anything as a Williamson turbine replaced the waterwheel in 1879.   It didn’t stop working until 1988.  However, it was purchased by the North of England Civic Trust in 2003, and in 2004, having reached the top three in the finals of the BBC2 Restoration programme, restoration work began.  It is now back and running, restored to full working order with a new water turbine functioning to produce renewable energy, and now open to the public.

The film finishes with multiple views of the falls on the River Ure; considered by many to be the most beautiful in Yorkshire.  Aysgarth, a name meaning ‘open space marked by oaks’, is an ancient village mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086.  The falls can be seen in many other films held at the YFA, including Dale Days (1940).

References

Norris, C. (transcribed & edited). Baines Yorkshire directory, 1822/3: list of towns and villages having entries for gentry, merchants & traders giving the parish, wapentake and location. Ripon: Ripon Historical Society, 2002.
A. H. Smith, The Place-Names of the North Riding of Yorkshire, Cambridge University Press, 1969.
UK and Ireland Genealogy