Archival Screenings
Maltings cinema
Wednesday 26 18.30
Total running time: 88 min
The Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival is delighted to present a selection of films from the archives of the Berwick Record Office. Covering the period from the late 1920s to the early ‘70s, this diverse collection provides a fascinating insight and social record of the town, as seen through the eyes of both amateurs and professionals. It also provides a rare opportunity to see two films by broadcasters Richard Dimbleby and Michael Canney, neither of which has been publicly screened in their complete versions for several years.
This programme will be presented by Linda Bankier, Archivist, Berwick Record Office.
The T.H. Brown Berwick Film is shown courtesy of Mr and Mrs Brown and the Northern Regional Film and Television Archive. Fred Stott’s Berwick is shown courtesy of Mrs Fiona Stott.
The Battered Borderer
1972, black & white, sound, 29 min
One of a series of documentary travelogues made for the BBC by the writer and journalist Michael Canney. Fascinating portrayal of a dilapidated 1970s Berwick, against the debates over the routing of the A1 … sounds familiar!
Coldstream Guards in Berwick
1950, colour, silent, 4 min 30 sec
An uncredited home movie showing the return of the Coldstream Guards to Berwick on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the establishment of the regiment.
T. H. Brown Berwick Film
1945, colour, silent, 14 min excerpts from a 17 min film
T. H. Brown was a prosperous Middlesbrough dentist and enthusiastic amateur filmmaker with family connections to the area, who visited Berwick in the mid-1940s. Shot on vivid 16mm Kodachrome, the film is believed to contain the earliest surviving colour footage of the Spittal ferry and salmon fishing in the harbour. Also look out for the barbed wire on the Quayside of wartime Berwick.
Fred Stott’s Berwick
1950s, black & white and colour, silent, 12 min excerpts from a 28 min film
Berwick-based artist Fred Stott purchased his first cine camera in 1952. This compilation of local events covers the 1950s and includes footage of the Tweedmouth Feast, the opening of the season at Berwick Bowling Club and the Queen’s visit to Berwick in 1956.
Snapshots of Berwick
1929, black & white, silent, 4 min
This is an archetypal example of the ‘local topical’ genre, in which cinema owners would film events and street scenes in their town as a way of enticing customers into their theatres. This film shows the opening of the May Fair, good shots of Marygate and the Quayside, and the housing and people of Walkergate Lane.
Berwick Infirmary Cup Final
1929, black & white, silent, 4 min
The Berwick Infirmary Cup Final in 1929 was played between Eyemouth Rangers and Belford at the Stanks in late June – the final score was 2–0 to Eyemouth. The Infirmary Cup that year raised over £100 for the Infirmary and was the forerunner of the present Charities Cup.
Regional Stories from
Gaumont-British News
1936, black & white, sound, 1 min
Example of a bi-weekly regional newsreel produced by one of the major companies specialising in this type of output. This excerpt shows the launching of the Berwick lifeboat.
Come With Me to
Berwick-upon-Tweed
1950, black & white, sound, 19 min
Billed as ‘a peep into the diary of Richard Dimbleby’, this is one of a number of cinema-distributed films made for National Screen Services. This extract shows interviews around the town and a visit to the spade works at Spittal (now Martins the Printers).