Night scene – Butlins, Skegness c.1960s
Here’s the latest news on film collections being deposited with the MACE Full Circle project: We’ve just had a call from Shaun Holden whose late father John Holden filmed scenes from their holidays at Butlins, Ingoldmells at Skegness in the 1960s. This was the camp that started it all – Billy Butlin got the idea of holiday villages when he lived in Toronto and brought the concept back to England in 1936.
The John Holden Collection Shaun Holden said his father drove very slowly along the full length of the camp and filmed Butlins at night when it was all lit up. Above and below are some old postcards to give you an idea of what the films may contain (as we haven’t viewed them yet) this postcard is from: http://www.bygonebutlins.com/postcards/skegness/ The Holdens were from Derbyshire and John also filmed all the local beauty spots there including Dovedale, Bakewell, Matlock and Ladybower Reservoir. John also filmed holidays on the south coast and in Ireland. The Holden collection comprises of 13 reels of Super 8 cinefilm.
This collection is currently at The Boathouse in Mablethorpe stored by our Full Circle group there. The Boathouse is an old lifeboat station now in use by the community to find out what goes on there have a look at their website: http://www.mablethorpeboatshed.org/ I will be going to Mablethorpe to collect these films to bring them back to the film archive at Lincoln University. The films will be assessed for quality and then carefully stored at the MACE archive in Lincoln in climatically controlled conditions, this will ensure their preservation for the future. Copies of the midlands footage will be made available for the Holden family and the community to share. To find out more about the Full Circle project contact Kay Ogilvie on kogilvie@lincoln.ac.uk or visit http://www.macearchive.org
