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
