Rare footage of 1901 tram ride down Belfast's Royal Avenue recovered

Rare footage of 1901 tram ride down Belfast's Royal Avenue recovered

It's always a source of amazement and delight to me that it is still possible for cine-footage from over a century ago to be rediscovered in viewable condition after lying dormant for so many years, but that is just what has happened recently in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as this article explains.

Who knows how much longer this fascinating footage would have lain undiscovered had it not been for one person browsing through the archives?  As it is a remarkable period in Belfast's history is now able to be viewed by a whole new generation, 113 years after it was filmed.

Belfast tram trip back in time: Recovered footage from early 1900s depicts city streets bustling

What absolutely captivating scenes they are too!  Part of the Mitchell & Kenyon Collection, which many of you may remember from the B.B.C. series of a few years ago and which is now safely in the hands of the British Film Institute, the footage was originally part of the film company's advertising stock.  I wonder if they could ever have imagined it surviving for so long, to become a source of great interest for historians and enthusiasts such as ourselves?  What were the people shown therein thinking and what were they doing that day, one wonders?

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It's simply marvellous to see a busy Belfast town centre in May of 1901.  The horse-drawn trams, the ladies in their full-length skirts and boaters, the men hurrying to and fro and the shop fronts filled with people.  Yet in many ways little has changed - drive down any high street on a Saturday and you will still see the shops, the throngs and the traffic, with just a difference in technology and the overall appearance of the people.  No doubt our own records of life in 2014 will be of equal interest to historians one hundred years hence.  This then is the joy and wonder of social history, and I'm off now to immerse myself in this engrossing footage all over again.

Museum marks end of the trolleybus era

What Goes Around from David Doré on Vimeo.

Museum marks end of the trolleybus era

Fifty years ago this month the last trolleybus ran its final scheduled service in the capital before the type was withdrawn in favour of more modern buses such as the Routemaster.  Sixty years ago the last few trams disappeared from the City's streets.  To celebrate this double anniversary - and also to remember the trolleybuses that ran in the nearby towns of Ipswich and Southend - the East Anglia Transport Museum held a special two-day gala event to remember these forgotten forms of public transport.

 

Eight London Transport trolleybuses were on show at the museum - the most all together in one place since they went out of service - and it is fascinating to see how quiet and efficient they still are today.  Eventually undone by [then-cheap] diesel-powered buses that were not constrained by route-defining overhead wires or the risk of those same wires coming adrift, trolleybuses had faded into obscurity - in this country at least - by 1962 and had completely vanished from the country ten years later.  But at their height they were seen as the future of public transport - clean, fast, modern and the natural successor to the open trams that plied the same routes.

Those same trams were evolving too, and new enclosed models allowed them to stay in the capital for only ten years less than the trolleybuses.  In fact, trams could be said to have held on better than trolleybuses, for as well as the world-famous examples in Brighton new tram networks have been reintroduced in Croydon, Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham, the West Midlands and (eventually) Edinburgh.

However while trolleybuses, like trams, have remained popular in Europe it is only now - in light of so much environmental concern - that they are being brought back to Britain.  A new 21st Century trolleybus is being planned for Leeds.  If it is successful other cities may follow suit.  As the title of the accompanying video so presciently states: what goes around... comes around.  Something we all know well, eh?

Sadly I was not able to attend the East Anglia Transport Museum for this particular celebration but I have been in the past, when I took these pictures.  The great thing about museum exhibits and vintage vehicles like these is - they don't date!  It was a thoroughly enjoyable visit at the time and has stayed in my memory ever since.  I am long due a return visit and I would thoroughly recommend it as a day out if you are ever in the area.  It's simply smashing to see so many people turn out to celebrate the classic tram and trolleybus, and to know there are still enthusiasts around to ensure these wonderful machines keep running.  Long may they continue, and perhaps we shall see these vehicles' spiritual successors in cities up and down the country in the future.

Southampton's 'oldest film' reshot in city centre

Southampton's 'oldest film' reshot in city centre

A pleasing little heritage project here as a Hampshire museum looks to retrace the steps (or should that be rails?) taken by the first moving picture camera to appear in Southampton.

I always find these kinds of "revisits" to be intriguing as it can be incredible to see certain areas and buildings virtually unaltered by the passage of time, yet others completely changed.  In this particular case there may well be more of the latter, as the earlier film apparently shows much of Southampton as it was before the Second World War.  In this I also have a personal interest, as my great-grandparents were born in Southampton in the 1880s and lived there for many years, so the original footage at least will likely show the town as it was when they were there and it will be fascinating for me, their descendant, to see what it looks like today.

Once again ideas such as this are, in my opinion, an excellent way to engage the younger generation in the history of their town.  To be able to see 100 years' difference side-by-side should make it easier for them to relate to the past.  I hope this reshoot is a success and it would be great to see it taken up by other towns wherever possible.