A Century of Salisbury and District on Film
MLCM produced this 90 minute DVD for Windrose Rural Media Trust, under the direction of their founder, Trevor Bailey.
As with much of our work, the film focused on people’s stories and memories, sparked by their viewing of old cine footage showing Salisbury and District as it was during the last 80 years.
This press release sums up the production in its entirety. The film clip above gives you a sample of one of the 14 chapters we produced.
“Over here!” “I don’t believe it!” They discovered it deep in undergrowth – an old barrage balloon winch once used for shifting the cumbrous pugmill that prepared clay for Whaddon brickworks. This was the stuff of boyhood memories. For Ray Hand the brickworks had been a playground and place of endless fascination. For Jan Ford it was his first workplace, where he learned the production of handmade bricks from a hereditary master of the art, Ralph Tanner.
Suddenly, hard on the heels of their memories, that world, destroyed by the development of the A36 in 1970s, is restored in cine film of the brickyard’s final days with all the detail of how it worked and had its being.
The scene shifts to the heart of Salisbury in the 1920s and 30s, when cattle were herded through the streets and working horses were paraded in Blue Boar Row. In beautiful films of the period we discover the market when it brought the farming community into the centre of the city’s life.
Wandering through the modern marketplace Doreen le Gallienne tells how her father was the first person to work for the council administering the market and the fair and relates stories of the people who inhabited them.
“The Biggest St. Bernard in the World” boasts the placard. “Entrance 2d”. We are in a typical 1930s Salisbury fair with milling crowds and small children gleefully grounding from the helter-skelter. Thirza Sillick giggles at girlhood memories of making eyes at the fair boys, in the vain hope of being carried off to a life of glamour and adventure.
At the western extreme of south Wiltshire, Zeals farmer Charles Spencer discovers films made by his predecessors at Search Farm, the Hannam family, 70 to 80 years earlier. The reality of rural change is set before him: the massive agricultural labour force, long gone; mixed farming working at the pace of the horse. A dozen milkers parade, with their three-legged stools, before the camera. There were far more people to look out for each other, he concludes, but, given the rigours of manual labour, it was not “the good old days”.
These are just a few of the riches to be found in a new DVD called “A Century of Salisbury and District on Film” that has been made by local charity Windrose Rural Media Trust
Windrose is the new name under which the work of Trilith, well known for its archive film shows as well as many other community media projects, is being continued.
The DVD, which is being formally launched this month, draws upon old films of local life that have been painstakingly saved and copied over a couple of decades. It has been funded by Salisbury District Council through one of the Council’s final community grants before its functions were absorbed by the new unitary authority.
Former council leader Paul Sample found himself appearing in the DVD when it was discovered that Windrose was including a film of amateur flying at High Post at a time when his grandfather was learning to fly there. Paul said: “We decided as our legacy for the future that we should support a project which would bring together some of the wonderful archive footage from the whole of the district in a DVD – something that could be enjoyed by future generations”.
Windrose director Trevor Bailey and his colleague, the well known former BBC Wiltshire presenter James Harrison, have spent many months finding people who have personal connections with the films or expert knowledge of their subjects and in shooting new material to add human experience to the old images.
“The original film-makers were local people who had the vision to record everyday life for coming generations”, says Trevor. “They did us a great service. It’s been a wonderful experience finding and saving their films, any of which could easily have been destroyed or lost. It’s been just as tremendous meeting a whole lot of people today who can really bring these old images to life with their recollections and stories.”
The oldest film included is of a Band of Hope celebration in 1921. There are also films of Mere and Wishford Oak Apple Day in the 1950s and the history of Salisbury’s formidable giant.
James Harrison, who has spent long hours editing the DVD, has formed his own clear view: “Old movie films take you right into the world of your ancestors. You can’t bring the past alive more vividly than this!”
To order the DVD contact Windrose by email, tbailey352@btinternet.com or phone 01747 840750
Windrose is keen to hear about any old film of life in Wiltshire, Dorset or Somerset, which you feel should be saved and seen again.