Wolverhampton City Archives reels in the films…………… on February 16th

A shot of Wolverhampton Shopping Mall c1960s at the MACE/Wolverhampton Archives joint vintage film screening on 16th February

At the jointly hosted event  between MACE and Wolverhampton City Archives, there was a full turnout for the vintage film screening of the changing face of Wolverhampton.

A number of  local people responded to our callout for film by bringing along their films for preservation and copying. Memories of the old days were evoked when we watched some wonderful old footage of the iconic Snapes tea shop,  street interviews of local people by the legendary John Swallow and the changing road schemes and shopping malls of Wolverhampton captured on screen by ATV.

Lisa Hale, Wolverhampton City Archives holding a tin of vintage film deposited on the day

Lisa Hale with Pat and Reg Lakeland’s film collection of 8mm films of the local area of Tattenhall and Wolverhampton and St Michael’s school trips.

Some people even recognised themselves on film! ……Dawn Ebright  below, recognised herself in a red dress filmed at the Wolvern Centre in the 1970s

Dawn Ebright and family

John Bissall with his videos - a media that is becoming obsolete, MACE will be making a copy of these films for John onto DVD

Local historian, author and filmmaker, Ned Williams brought along his video diaries of local carnivals, fairs and local transport. A project he started in 2000 but cannot watch now as the media is obsolete. We hope to be able to copy these films onto DVD for Ned, and preserve the original in the MACE film archive

Barbara brought in the film collection of Jean Wellsbury, both of them taught at local schools and have films of school sports days

If you have any films or videos that you would like preserving for future generations to enjoy then please contact Kay Ogilvie senior curator for Full Circle at kogilvie@lincoln.ac.uk to talk about how to proceed. This project is called Full Circle and is partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to find out  more about the project please visit our website http://www.macearchive.org

Archive Videos Go Online

Article in BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

March 2010 Issue

Previously unseen video footage of life throughout the 20th century has been made available to view online for the first time.

The diverse set of film clips are free to browse at Wevee.co.uk, a new project aiming to raise awareness of the wealth and variety of Britain’s regional archives. They show the more unusual side of life in the Midlands area and are taken from a variety of sources, including The Staffordshire Film Archive and The Media Archive for Central England.

Over two-thirds of the footage has never been accessible online before, including local celebrations for the Queen’s coronation in 1953 and experiences of workers at the Cadbury’s factory in Bournville. Although the chance of seeing your ancestor captured on film may be small, the innovative project reflects the growing desire of archivists to improve accessibility to their collections.

As well as viewing the archive footage, visitors to the site can also can edit the clips, add a musical soundtrack and then share the result online. Television Junction’s Digital Development Producer Rebecca Cadwallader hopes the site will engage new audiences: “It’s all about connections that people make with archives,” she says. “We’re going to be making more video content available over the coming months, allowing access to material that usually stays behind closed doors.”

Have a go yourself here – http://www.wevee.co.uk

Read Full Article at Who Do You Think You Are Magazine