'30s and '40s film online archive completed

The People's Land (1941) from British Council Film on Vimeo.

'30s and '40s film online archive completed

Some of the news articles that I choose to feature on this blog often concern vintage-orientated projects such as archives, recreations and restorations.  Sometimes these long-term ventures get a flurry of media coverage at the outset and then all goes quiet for a time - the thing gets forgotten about and bubbles along in the background until completion brings press attention again or, less happily, it slips into oblivion.  I always like to revisit the more successful undertakings where possible and this latest post is one such pleasing example.

Nearly four years ago now(!) I wrote about an article detailing the British Council's intention to digitise and upload its entire collection of cultural information films from the 1930s and '40s.  All told as many as 160 ten-minute films were to be archived online for everyone to view.  I'm delighted to see today that this process has finally been completed, with 120 clips - mainly from the 1940s - now available to enjoy on the Council's Vimeo site.   


Country Town (1943) from British Council Film on Vimeo.

Film of Britain preparing for war in 1940 revealed by the British Council

A good few bits of footage feature the British war effort, as is to be expected, yet in amongst the wartime clips are some equally fascinating views of daily life in Britain in the 1940s - some in beautiful Technicolour.  I've included a couple more of my favourites here, plus the three in my original post, but really every one is a gem of Forties detail.  The insight these films give us into British life 70 years ago is nothing short of fantastic, with both familiar sights and long-lost scenes from around the country.   Endlessly captivating, it's wonderful to finally see them all preserved for the future.

Typewriters of Britain, unite!

Another week has nearly flown by; what a busy month this has been!  Summer has finally arrived too, although I read that it will be going away again come the weekend.

Anyway, I had intended to do a post today about a player piano and a bicycle.  There's a novel combination, eh?  It sounds like something from a Laurel & Hardy film, doesn't it?  I bet you're wondering now just what it'll all be about, aren't you?  A bicycle-powered player piano, perhaps?  Some chap cycling across America with a player piano in tow, maybe?  Well, you'll just have to wait a little bit longer to find out I'm afraid.

A type-in is essentially people meeting up, usually in a public place - a park, a café, a town square (other suggestions welcome!) - and typing!  Whether it be a letter, a poem, a short story or just some faint random lines mixed with expletives it's just an excuse to socialise with folks who share an interest and give these old typers a new lease of life.  You don't even have to have a [portable] typewriter yourself as there are always collectors and multiple-typewriter owners willing to lend machines for the purpose.

Type-ins (or type-outs, depending on the weather!) have been a great success in the States - as well as the above video see Life In A Typewriter Shop and Writing Ball amongst others - so why shouldn't they be in the UK too?  Don't we have the name of British manufacturer Imperial (maker of my own Model 66) to uphold?  Haven't we got antiques stores, car boot sales, lofts and the like where typewriters may be hiding?  Didn't we invent the blessed thing?!  Surely the time has come for us Brits to take a hand?  The world of the vintage and typewriter enthusiast is ripe for a crossover - I can't be the only retro-minded chap to enjoy the clacking of keys on paper?

What has been suggested is still only in the early planning stages (and may not come off if there is no interest) but the crux of it is simple - a type-in somewhere in the British Isles.  With that in mind and assuming the availability of typewriters and a suitable (central) location the question as it stands is this:

Would you be interested in a UK-based type-in?

Feel free to vote and/or comment below and - depending on how it goes - I'll be back with the results next week.  In the meantime, don't forget to stay tuned for that bike-piano combo!

How Victorian engineers almost built an underwater tunnel between Scotland and Ireland

How Victorian engineers almost built an underwater tunnel between Scotland and Ireland

This story has been reported by various news sites, including the B.B.C., but by far the best and most comprehensive description is from science [fiction] blog io9.

As anyone who has crossed the Irish Sea will tell you, a train journey (or, these days, an aeroplane flight) is infinitely more preferable to a ferry crossing and this was obviously very much the case even a hundred years ago.  It should come as no surprise therefore that the industrially-minded Victorians seriously considered a series of railway tunnels beneath the Irish Sea; the idea of a Channel Tunnel had been mooted almost a century earlier so the intent was clearly there.  Regrettably in both cases the huge engineering challenge would prove too great for Victorian science to overcome.  Nevertheless that such a plan was drawn up is a remarkable testament to the technological ambition and farsightedness of 19th Century engineers.

The suggestion of tunnels between mainland Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man still occasionally appears even today.  But it was the Victorians who first thought of the idea even though they, and subsequent supporters of the scheme, were always stymied by the matter of cost, politics and now a difference in the railway gauge.  It's not to say that the project is unfeasible, however, and I'm sure the vision will still be revisited in the future and - who knows? - maybe even undertaken.

A snapshot of life in Britain more than 50 years ago

I'm sure most if not all of my UK-based readers will have been watching the Time To Remember series that has been running for some time now on BBC Four. For those of you outside the British Isles or without digital television, this programme consists of a selection of 1920s-30s British Pathé newsreels on various subjects which in the 1950s were spliced together and narrated by some well-known actors of the day including Ralph Richardson, Basil Rathbone, Anthony Quayle and Roger Livesy. These have now been reworked into half-hour long shows with the odd bit of modern narration between the excerpts. Suffice to say they have all been captivating and I am well and truly hooked.



It was with some interest, therefore, that I read yesterday (I won't say where, or provide a link this time, because the original article was so biased and patronising that it actually incensed me - thankfully it was not one of my usual sources) that the British Film Council is releasing a series of cultural and educational films about British life in the 1940s and 1950s, which have been recently digitised having languished in the archives unseen for over 30 years. These 15- to 20-minute films were originally intended to be shown abroad, and to explain and promote the British way of life. A sort of 1940s tourist information advert, in a sense.

At the moment only 13 have been uploaded and are available to view, but apparently there are 160 in all - yes, one hundred and sixty! - and all of them will eventually be added to the archive website. One other good thing to have come out of this project is that some of the people working on it are funded by a charity set up to help the young unemployed.



These three are my favourites so far, but I think you'll agree that they're all a fascinating insight into life in Britain 60-70 years ago and I can't wait to see what else is to come. There are many values on display (not to mentions fashions!) that we'd all like to see making a return in today's lifestyle. Some show an existence that has long since vanished in this country, some show activities that continue in some form today, a few remain informative and relevant even now; all are spellbinding.