Pathe's Shropshire film archive goes online
A fascinating archive of Shropshire films covering news and events from yesteryear has been released as part of a new collection by British Pathe.
A fascinating archive of Shropshire films covering news and events from yesteryear has been released as part of a new collection by British Pathe.
The newly-released Shropshire collection includes newsreel of one of Shropshire's most famous sons, Olympics star Robbie Brightwell in training, as well as the famous Jackfield landslip of 1952.
It has now been made available online as part of a new compilation which has seen 90,000 reels of film put into digital form.
To see the films, and many more, click on the images on the right
Pathe newsreels, covering everything from war and disaster to quirky magazine-style items, were familiar to generations of cinema-goers.
With their clipped-accent commentaries - lampooned by the likes of Harry Enfield with his Cholmondley-Warner character - they are icons of their times.
The collection has built up into an invaluable archive which, thanks to the internet, is now being made more freely available.
The Shropshire collection includes a 1959 coaching session at Lilleshall's National Sports Centre for British athletes, ahead of the following year's Olympic Games in Rome.
Record
The footage shows coach J. W. Lloyd-Alford explaining the theory of long-jumping on a blackboard, while Donnington athlete Robbie Brightwell demonstrates a sprint start.
Brightwell was one of the county's young athletics stars, and in the Rome Olympics twice smashed the UK and national record for the 400 metres, but did not qualify for the final.
He skippered Britain's 1964 Tokyo Olympics athletics team and married gold medal-winning sprinter Ann Packer.
Material also includes royal visits to the county, the 1969 Shrewsbury Flower Show, Boys Brigade camps and renowned Ironbridge coracle maker Harry Rogers fishing on the River Severn in Ironbridge in 1948.
Also covered is the collapse of one of the houses in Jackfield in 1952, while another film shows stunt diver Roy Fransen plunging 75ft into a small tank of water.
British Pathe's Alastair White said: "Pathe were very aware that people had paid good money to go to the cinema, so all the news items have a real positive spin on them. Even if they're very dramatic stories or tragic stories they have an upbeat feel to them."
By Toby Neal
