TNT Ladywood News Team’s History Show wows Ladywood residents by revisiting @MACEarchive ATV News stories & Full Circle film screening

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Earlier this month the wonderful TNT News Team & Ladywood History Group put on a fantastic exhibition and film screening event which ran over two days, 9th-10th December. It was held at the Parish Church of St John and St Peter, Darnley Road, just off Monument Road, Ladywood, Birmingham.

It was a fantastic day in the beautiful renovated church, complete with exhibition boards featuring local news stores and event covered by both the TNT News Team and Ladywood History Group’s Norman Bartlam, over the past 10 years or more. The event, which was attended by over 300 people over the course of the weekend, was a huge success and an opportunity for the younger members of the Ladywood community to show people the amazing work they had produced being part of TNT News Team.

When TNT & Ladywood History Group first got involved in the MACE (Media Archive for Central England) Heritage Lottery Funded Full Circle Project, they were excited to see which ATV and Midlands News stories were held on film and preserved by MACE. The groups decided to breath new life into the stories and revisit them in 2011 to see how things had changed. They have put together a compilation of their work – The History Show, TNT News November 2011 – to be preserved at MACE for future generations to enjoy for years to come.

The TNT News - The History Show - November 2011 Compilation on DVD - revisiting stories from ATV and Midlands News, held at MACE.

Members of the community that had been featured in stories captured on camera by TNT came to visit the exhibition and also Mayoress Councillor Ward also gave her stamp of approval to the young people’s hard work and urged members of the community not to forget that our past is just as important as our future and should be preserved in the best way possible.

Mayoress Councillor Ward attended the TNT News & Ladywood History Group's 10th Anniversary Celebratory film screening event.

MACE's brand new film and tape store at the University of Lincoln funded by Revitalising the Regions.

If you have any cine film, tape or moving image material relating to Ladywood, Birmingham or the wider Midlands region and want to know how you can preserve these items for years to come and have relevant material digitised as part of the Full Circle Project, please get in touch with:

Lucie Kerley – Full Circle Project Curator: Community & Acquisition – 07919 896 505 or 01522 837756 (Wednesday’s) email: lkerley@lincoln.ac.uk

http://www.macearchive.org/Full-Circle.html

Photography ©Lucie Kerley

The Gothic Warehouse at Cromford Mill, a World Heritage Site, hosts Full Circle Screening……….

The Gothic Warehouse at Cromford Mill, Derbyshire

We all had a wonderful evening watching archive film of the local area in the historic surroundings of Cromford Mill on Saturday 26th November. Hosted by The Arkwright Society and Angela Jones the Events officer. The Arkwright Society is the charity looking after this World Heritage Site a legacy of Sir Richard Arkwright and his construction of the world’s first successful water powered cotton spinning mill at Cromford in 1771. There are lovely canal side walks, guided tours of the site and characterful cafes and shops – well worth a visit and  Cromford railway station is only a few minutes away. http://www.arkwrightsociety.org.uk/.

Floods in Matlock 1965 from the Harry Gill Collection

Phyllis Higton, daughter of the locally famous photographer and later filmmaker, Harry Gill, kindly allowed her father’s films to be screened at  Cromford, knowing that they held so much interest locally. Phyllis has deposited the rest of her father’s collection with us at MACE for us to store them in our climatically controlled film archive. Look out for notices at Cromford Mill and locally as this is a huge collection and we will be screening more of this collection and others in 2012.

Phyllis Higton at the film screening of her father's films with one of her daughters

Phyllis came along with one of her daughters and thoroughly enjoyed seeing these films – they really evoked memories of Matlock and Matlock Bath (where she used to live). The flooding scenes were amazing – with a torrent of water rushing along Bakewell Road coming from the River Derwent. One person in the audience recognised her grandfather and another remembered riding on the amphibious vehicles to get across town.

Mary Beale

Another ‘moment’ of the evening was when Mary Beale (above) recognised herself as a young girl in 1954  in a film made by British Transport Films (BTF).  “The Peak  District” was one of many travelogue films made by the BTF film production unit.  They made a series of travelogue films to promote rail travel around the British Isles.There is a website dedicated to all the films made by this unit and you can buy some of them from Amazon or the  British Film Institute. http://www.britishtransportfilms.co.uk/

Phyllis Wayne (left)

Another film collection which we hope to be screening at Cromford in 2012 is from the collection of Phyllis Wayne. Phyllis Wayne and Phyllis Higton lived next door to each other and it is interesting to see how each of their father’s filmed the same events. We have got some very good coverage of the Starkholmes Carnival in the 1960s!

If you have any films that you would like advice on preserving and perhaps sharing with your community please get in contact with Kay Ogilvie, senior curator, Full Circle project kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk and visit our Full Circle pages on the MACE website http://www.macearchive.org for more information.

Belper Historical Society screen vintage films in the oldest building in Belper………

Mr Ray Marjoram did an excellent job as projectionist: view of East Mill Belper, closed by English Sewing amidst a political storm in 1985

Belper Historical Society had an excellent turnout (considering the weather!) for their screening of vintage films at St John’s Chapel Belper on Wednesday 7th December. It was poignant to watch the ATV footage of the closure of East Mill by English Sewing in 1985 and many faces were recognised up there on the big screen. It was quite shocking to realise that English Sewing  had made a 24 million pound profit the year before, yet still they were tempted by Government funds to move to  Glasgow to a new ‘enterprise’ zone. Thereby making hundreds redundant in Belper. The same happened to many mills along the Derwent Valley in Derbyshire, which is now a World Heritage Site.

Kay Ogilvie (right), senior curator for Full Circle, chats to Pat Majoram (second right) and John Barnett of Belper Historical Society.

Other vintage films screening that night were 1930s films from the Wright/Ratcliffe Collection including Kniveton Jubilee and Ashbourne Carnival.  A resident from Kniveton recognised some faces on these films too and she is now speaking to Kniveton Parish Council about  holding a screening in their village hall of more films from this superb collection.

Pat and Ray Marjoram organised an artefacts table whereby members were asked to identify some of the ‘finds’ on display including some lovely decorated clay pipes. Other ‘finds’ that night included a collection of films owned by John Barnett. More about that further down this blog!

Ray Majoram also doing door service!

The Belper Historical Society is also looking for new committee members to help with ideas and future planning – if you would like to get involved please contact Kay and she will pass on your details. They hold regular meetings and organise history related events and historical walks in and around Belper.

Kay talking to John Barnett about his father's collection of films

Films owned by  John  Barnett: These sound very interesting indeed! They belonged to his father and are of a wedding at Belper Registry Office (does this still exist?) with a reception at The Hurt Arms,  Ambergate, Riber Castle – Matlock when it was a zoo,  scenes from Belper,  Buxton and  Bakewell and something called the ‘Ripley Rotokana’ possibly a carnival, also ‘Dams During Drought’ – the reservoirs of North Derbyshire during the 1976 drought. We will talk to John about preserving his original films and getting  him copies of these onto DVD as these films are of great local interest.

Kay handing Pat Majoram two DVD copies of vintage films for the Belper Historical Society to use in the future and to add to their own film archive.

Tea, coffee and mince pies were a welcome break in the film show - served by one of the members of Belper Historical Society

If you have any films that you would like to preserve and then share with the community then please contact Kay at kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk. Visit our Full Circle pages on our website to find out more about how to get involved http://www.macearchive.org

9th-10th December – Ladywood History Group 10th Anniversary Exhibition & Full Circle Archive Film Screening of old Ladywood

On Friday 9th December 2011, one of the Media Archive for Central England’s Birmingham based Full Circle Groups – TNT News and Ladywood History Group – invite you to attend an exhibition of photographs and memorabilia of old Ladywood at The Church of St John and St Peter, Ladywood, from 11:00am – 7:30pm and Saturday 10th December from 10:00am – 1:00pm.

On Saturday, 10th December, people are invited to attend a screening of films from the @MACEarchive ATV collection relating to Ladywood, as it was when featured in the news in the 1950s and 1960s. And don’t miss the cutting of the cake by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham at 10:30am to celebrate this special occasion!

Come along and see if you recognise anyone on the films!

Or of you have any old cine films or homemovies relating to Ladywood, Birmingham or the wider Midlands area that deserve preserving in a film archive and would like to know how they can be digitised free of charge as part of MACE’s Heritage Lottery Funded Full Circle Film Search Project, then please speak to MACE’s Full Circle Curator – Lucie Kerley, who will be in attendance at Saturday’s event.

You can also contact Lucie Kerley via email on: lkerley@lincoln.ac.uk

Film Screening Tonight! Weds 7th Dec 7.30pm at St John’s Chapel, Strutts, Belper showing footage from the 1930s, 1950s and 1960s…

The Fisherman's Rest, Belper from the Wright/Ratcliffe collection c.1960s

The Belper Historical society meet tonight to watch films they have found through the Full Circle film search project. I am very pleased to be invited along to introduce the films and talk about the project. We will be screening a compilation of films put together by MACE/Full Circle  which includes film extracts from the Mellors/Walters Collection, the Wright/Radcliffe Collection and bits of archive footage of the closure of the East Mill at Belper and a beautifully photographed  travelogue film made in 1955  by British Transport of The  Peak District. http://www.britishtransportfilms.co.uk/The Wright/Ratcliffe Collection (screenshot above of Kniveton Jubilee c.1930s) This a huge collection of small gauge film (8mm)  made in the 1930s in b/w and is still being assessed for content and quality by MACE. We hope to have more of this collection available to view in 2012.

Wilfred  Ratcliffe, was chauffeur to the Wright family of Kniveton. The vast collection includes footage of Meyall Hunt on Darley Moor, Kniveton Fete, Ashbourne Show, Derby County FC, Flagg point to point, Harvest scene – described as ‘good’ and Bradbourne.

The Walters/Mellors collection was made in the 1960s by local film maker Norman Mellors. The late Norman Mellor of Belper, used to go to the old Ritz in Belper regularly where his father worked as the projectionist. This led to Norman becoming very interested in filmmaking, he bought himself a cine camera in the early 1950s and filmed many local events in and around Belper, Derbyshire. His nephew Stephen Walters has been clearing out his late uncle’s house and found Norman’s film collection.

To find out about how to preserve and share your films with the local community  contact Kay Ogilvie, senior curator, Full Circle project kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk and visit our Full Circle webpage on http://www.macearchive.org/Full-Circle.html

Tonight! Saturday 26th November 7pm – Film screening at The Gothic Warehouse, Cromford Mill….

Film screening venue: The Gothic Warehouse Cromford Mill, Derbyshire

The Arkwright Society in Cromford, setting for the World Heritage Cromford Mills site is hosting the first Full Circle film screening in this area.  We are pleased to be screening local films of Matlock and Matlock Bath, Cromford, Ripley and much much more. These films came to light through the film searches carried out by local groups as part of this Heritage Lottery Funded project, developed by MACE – the screen archive for the Midlands.

Phyllis Higton holding her father Harry Gill's camera

This unseen footage was deposited with MACE by Phyllis Higton, daughter of the locally famous photographer Harry Gill. Another local resident, also called Phyllis,  deposited some lovely local footage of the Starkholmes Carnival  with MACE filmed by her father.

Carnival queen at Starkholmes carnival - Phyllis Wayne Collection

IN AN AGE WHEN the media was limited to newspapers and the wireless, Harry Gill followed an unusual occupation. He was a press photographer: moreover, he was one of an elite handful who chose to follow the uncertain, though exciting, freelance route. For nearly 50 years there were few picture and news editors on local and regional papers in the North and Midlands unfamiliar with Harry Gill’s work. And, gradually as his contacts and experience grew, he was used increasingly by national newspapers. The by-line on the back of prints – Photo by H. Gill, Bradley House, Dale Road, Matlock – became acknowledged as a by-word for reliability and professionalism. Michael Fay

If you have any films or moving image that you would like to put in safekeeping and to share with the community please contact Kay Ogilvie, senior curator Full Circle project kay.ogilvie@ tiscali.co.uk  and to find out more visit http://www.macearchive.org/Full-Circle.html

Archive film screening tonight! At Holymoorside Village Hall Derbyshire as part of the Full Circle Heritage Lottery funded project….

Cans of film stored in temperature controlled conditions at the MACE archive

We are very pleased to be bringing an archive film screening to Holymoorside Village Hall tonight at 7pm. This is part of the Full Circle project developed by MACE to help protect and share our screen heritage. Tonight’s films will include 1960s films of floods in Matlock and Matlock Bath and the big freeze in the Matlock area of 1963. All filmed by the late Harry Gill a photographer from Matlock Bath and kindly deposited with our film archive for safe keeping by his daughter Phyllis Higton.

For more than 50 years, Harry Gill was a professional photographer who recorded thousands of events – from those of national importance to the homespun familiarity of local weddings. Although his territory was Matlock and the Peak District, he worked wherever commissions took him. Now, over 30 years after his death, Harry Gill’s photographic collection has been rediscovered – a unique, fascinating archive of life, people and places spanning 40 years until the late 1960s. http://www.andrewspages.dial.pipex.com/matlock/mag/reflections/gill.htm
Michael Fay

Holymoorside Village Hall, Holymoorside Road, Derbyshire S42 7DX Telephone: 01246 569882

If you have any films or moving image that you would like to preserve for the future and share with the community please contact Kay Ogilvie senior curator Full Circle kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk

Full house at The Ritz, Belper, Derbyshire over the weekend Discovery Days Festival screening Full Circle archive films….

Local people queued up on Saturday and Sunday to see the archive films......

What a fantastic weekend of films, walks, tours and lectures we had this weekend in Belper, Derbyshire. The Discovery Days Festival is still running until 30th October so there is still time to catch even more events! For more information visit http://www.derwentvalleymills.org. At The Ritz queues were forming to see the newly discovered films found through the Full Circle project of Belper and surrounding area.

At this lovely independent cinema you can buy home-made cakes!

The films we were screening at the Ritz were a mixture of home-movies and professional footage. Some of the home-movie material had been deposited with the Full Circle project by Stephen Walters and showed scenes in and around Belper during the 1960s.

BBC producer Teresa Mikula (East Midlands Today) talks to Stephen Walters about his film collection which was left to him by his uncle Norman Mellors

Teresa Mikula produces the BBC programme ‘Preserving the Past‘. She has been supporting the Full Circle project  and helping to bring the found footage to a wider audience. She interviewed Stephen about his uncle’s film collection and we will be seeing more of the footage and the interview in the Autumn series. Stephen said about the film screening:

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! It was lovely to see the films up on the big screen and I’m looking forward to having a copy of my uncle’s film collection to view on DVD

Teresa Mikula, BBC producer of “Preserving the Past” interviews Stephen Walters

The other home-movie footage The Wright/Radcliffe Collection, found through Full Circle featured scenes in and around Ashbourne & Kniveton in the 1930s – this is really rare footage and is quite a big collection – over 90 reels – which is still in the process of being assessed. Our thanks go to Peter Frost who deposited this collection with MACE.

Kay Ogilvie, senior curator for Full Circle introduces the films......

The collection of films shown also included a lovely 1955 British Transport travel guide to Derbyshire, ATV footage of the controversial closure of East Mill Belper in 1986 and a small independent film made in the 1980s about climbing friends ascent of High Tor in Matlock Bath which had the audience on the edge of their seats!

Tonight at 7:30pm: Come and enjoy a MACE Full Circle Screening of Herefordshire related Archive Film at Fownhope Memorial Hall £3 admission refreshments provided

Tonight one of our fantastic West Midlands Full Circle Groups, Fownhope Local History Group, have organised a screening of archive film that has been shot locally and shows places such as Mordiford and Fownhope, Hereford farming and Hop picking and other scenes of local Herefordshire life, some shot by local farmer John Barnett and friends who, many years ago, formed Hereford Cine Society captured many local events on film.

These cine-film collections were found by Fownhope LHG as part of the MACE Heritage Lottery Funded ‘Full Circle Project’ which runs until March 2013 and aims to search for moving image materials relating to the Midlands region, which is then digitised and put it back into the community in an accessible format that can be enjoyed at locally organised film screening events such as the one taking place tonight from 7:30pm at Fownhope Memorial Hall.

If anyone wishes to book a ticket, £3 admission, or reserve a seat please contact: David Clark – 01432 860017

If you have any old home-movies or cine-film lurking in your cupboard that you are unsure what to do with, please bring them along this evening to find out how we can preserve them and digitise any Midlands related material.
Contact: Lucie Kerley – Full Circle Curator: Community & Acquisition.
Tel: 07919 896505 or
email: lkerley@lincoln.ac.uk

See you tonight!

Back to the Past at Alfreton Leisure Centre this Sunday 23rd October a day of films, books, talks and more….

A HERITAGE of HERITAGE EVENTS!

An Invitation to all Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Museums, Heritage Groups, Local Historical & Genealogical Societies & Community Groups to join with us to celebrate  Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Heritage,  ALFRETON LEISURE CENTRE, Church Street, Alfreton, DE55 7BD  10am to 4pm  Children 16 and under Free, Adults £1

Come and see Kay, senior curator of Full Circle at the Full Circle stall and find out how your films can be preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Mr and Mrs Alvey and Tony Fisher, vice-chair Alfreton Heritage Trust with the Fred Alvey film collection! We will be screening some of Fred's films on Sunday.....

The Fred Alvey films were shot by Roy’s brother Fred Alvey. He started filming in 1955. A film enthusiast, Fred also put on public film shows at Alfreton town hall in the 1970s. The collection, which Roy has kindly donated to the archive, includes footage of the Cromford Raft Races. The collection also includes some 1950s 8mm footage shot from the window of a moving car, depicting a complete journey from Alfreton to Derby.

The Fred Alvey film collection has now been preserved at MACE'S climatically-controlled film archive and copies made onto DVD for the family and community to view

In order to achieve this, the camera was mounted inside the car, and the footage filmed by shooting still frames at intervals, a kind of stop-motion effect similar to that used in animation films. The final film, when played back, appears dramatically speeded up, and takes the viewer on a whirlwind tour of the area. The footage offers a fascinating insight into everyday life and street scenes which are often neglected by filmmaker in favour of family events or special occasions.

Organiser: ALFRETON & DISTRICT HERITAGE TRUST Vice Chair – Paul Nichols Tel 01773 604809 http://www.alfretonheritage.com In Conjunction With: JACKSDALE AREA CULTURE & HERITAGE Secretary – Carol Taylor-Cockayne Tel 01773 603440 www.jacksdale.org.uk Email: zyg1010@care4free.net

If you have any films or moving image that you would like to share with the community and preserve for future generations to enjoy then contact Kay Ogilvie, senior curator on kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk