This is a film from the Douthwaite Collection showing an Armistice Day Service in Doncaster, a Coronation Fair, and other local events. Title - Armistice Day Service at the war memorial, Doncaster.  Sunday November 9th 1952. People are gathered around the war memorial.  An army band is playing while a large wreath is laid and flags are lowered.  The film then switches to a steeple chase race at Doncaster racecourse.  A camera is perched on a scaffolding tower filming the race, with television...

This is a film from the Douthwaite Collection showing an Armistice Day Service in Doncaster, a Coronation Fair, and other local events. Title - Armistice Day Service at the war memorial, Doncaster.  Sunday November 9th 1952. People are gathered around the war memorial.  An army band is playing while a large wreath is laid and flags are lowered.  The film then switches to a steeple chase race at Doncaster racecourse.  A camera is perched on a scaffolding tower filming the race, with television trucks below.  The film switches again to a woman arriving at a house and then some adults and children walking in a park (very dark).  Next there is a poster for Billy Smart’s New World Circus and Menagerie.  A van with loud speakers leads the parade of the circus through Doncaster, followed by elephants.  Behind them is a shop, Taylor and Colbridge, next door to Burton, with a large crowd looking on.  The film switches again to show the railway station sign for Market Rasen, with passengers getting off a train and leaving the platform.  There is a street and a woman stands next to St Thomas’s Church.  There is the Douthwaite shop with awnings, possibly on Queen Street, Market Rasen. Intertitle – Coronation Events Shop windows are decked out with items to mark the royal coronation.  In a street there is a race of legged-propelled go-carts.  Then there is a poster advertising a Coronation Fair and Fireworks Display for Saturday May 16th at Doncaster Racecourse.  Inside the Racecourse there is a display by police horsemen, followed by children dancing around a Maypole and on fair rides.  Then people in Victorian and Edwardian dress ride around on penny farthings and other vintage cycles.  There is a short clip of girl guides on a parade and the fireworks display.  The film switches again to a man painting the end of a flag pole.  A woman washes a Union Jack and then hangs it on a line to dry.  It is then seen flying outside the house.  A poster advertises another event, including ox roasting, and a park worker is putting a heavy roller over what looks like a bowling lawn.  Nearby a huge bonfire has been built.  Elsewhere, bunting is put up in a street of terraced houses, and a bombed out pub has been decorated.   Intertitle – Clay Lane Hall Sport Outside, boys are having a race, with a crowd of spectators, while inside there is a May Queen Celebration, and a large dinner party with a speaker (poor quality film, very faded).  Then, elsewhere, there are the remains of the ox on the roasting spit.  People attending are wrapped in heavy coats, and in the evening the bonfire is ablaze.  A train passes being pulled by two steam locomotives.  A vintage locomotive stands in a station platform as the train arrives, watched by waiting photographers, with engines GNR 950 and 251. The film switches to holiday accommodation next to the coast, where a boy plays with a black Labrador.  Then the whole family, including two girls, play cricket outside their caravan.  Next they are driving through a village in the countryside, filmed from the front of the car.