Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 713 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| CORONATION YEAR - FESTIVAL OF HOBBIES | 1953 | 1953-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 5 mins 06 secs Credits: Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle Jack Eley Subject: Railways |
| Summary Made by members of the Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle, this film documents the Festival of Hobbies which was held at the Corn Exchange in Leeds. Many different tables and stalls have been set up for display in celebration of hobbies including model railways, weaving, pottery, stamp collecting, and filmmaking. |
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Description
Made by members of the Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle, this film documents the Festival of Hobbies which was held at the Corn Exchange in Leeds. Many different tables and stalls have been set up for display in celebration of hobbies including model railways, weaving, pottery, stamp collecting, and filmmaking.
Title - Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle Presents
Coronation Year Festival of Hobbies
The film opens with shots taken from the first floor of the Corn Exchange. There are many different...
Made by members of the Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle, this film documents the Festival of Hobbies which was held at the Corn Exchange in Leeds. Many different tables and stalls have been set up for display in celebration of hobbies including model railways, weaving, pottery, stamp collecting, and filmmaking.
Title - Leeds Camera Club Cine Circle Presents
Coronation Year Festival of Hobbies
The film opens with shots taken from the first floor of the Corn Exchange. There are many different tables set up for people to display equipment and memorabilia associated with their different hobbies. Some of these include ceramics, transport engines, film, and stamp collecting. There are many tables set up, and those in attendance make their way from table to table. There is also a miniature railway set up, and there are a few children who take a ride on the train.
Sign - Model Railway
There are shots of a working model railway. Nearby, there is a man with a model tank and well as a woman demonstrating a weaving loom. There is also a woman throwing on a pottery wheel. She makes a vase which she removes from the wheel with a cutting wire.
At the Leeds Camera Club table, various projectors and cameras are set up. There is also a Zoetrope on display.
Sign - Zoetrope - This machine was invented by a Mr. Horner in 1934 and was probably the first form of cinematography.
The Zoetrope can be seen in motion, and the film closes with more shots of the Cine Club's table.
Title - The End.
Context
A fascinating glimpse into the world of post-war Britain with its extraordinary range of hobbies, before the TV set in the corner took over so much of working class leisure time.
In the days before watching television could be listed as a hobby, here in the Leeds of 1953 we get a flavour of the rich variety of hobbies that involved rather more activity and creativity. We see the impressive working class skills of model making and embroidery on display. And among the numerous stalls there...
A fascinating glimpse into the world of post-war Britain with its extraordinary range of hobbies, before the TV set in the corner took over so much of working class leisure time.
In the days before watching television could be listed as a hobby, here in the Leeds of 1953 we get a flavour of the rich variety of hobbies that involved rather more activity and creativity. We see the impressive working class skills of model making and embroidery on display. And among the numerous stalls there is one for the Philatelic Society, as well as one for basic stamp collecting; one for amateur movie making, as well as for the Leeds Camera Club, who made this film. The Cine Circle of the Leeds Camera Club here reflect on themselves as hobbyists, when roughly a half of the population in Britain in the 1950s had at least one hobby. The sociologist of the period, Ferdynand Zweig, wrote at time that, “Hobbies give a man something to love and something to in which to find freedom . . . [when] a working man has very little freedom and must do what he dislikes.” Leeds Philatelic Society is still going strong, and the zoetrope itself remains a hobby for a few, though William Horner, who invented the first one called it "daedaleum" (after the mythical Greek craftsman), which had its slits in between the images, unlike the zoetrope seen here, devised by the American William Lincoln. |
