Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 17477 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| PILGRIMAGE TO HOLY ISLAND | 1929 | 1929-01-01 |
|
Details
Original Format: 35mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 1 min 58 secs Credits: British Pictorial Productions Genre: Local Topical Subject: Seaside Religion |
| Summary Early silent Empire News Bulletin newsreel that depicts the annual pilgrimage to Lindisfarne Priory on the Holy Island, Northumberland, reached by a causeway at low tide. |
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Description
Early silent Empire News Bulletin newsreel that depicts the annual pilgrimage to Lindisfarne Priory on the Holy Island, Northumberland, reached by a causeway at low tide.
Title: Pilgrimage to Holy Island, nearly two thousand people walk across the sands from Northumberland mainland to hear Mass at the historic ruins of Lindisfarne priory.
Some of the pilgrims ride across the flat sands from the mainland to Lindisfarne in horse-drawn carts, following an ancient route known as Pilgrims'...
Early silent Empire News Bulletin newsreel that depicts the annual pilgrimage to Lindisfarne Priory on the Holy Island, Northumberland, reached by a causeway at low tide.
Title: Pilgrimage to Holy Island, nearly two thousand people walk across the sands from Northumberland mainland to hear Mass at the historic ruins of Lindisfarne priory.
Some of the pilgrims ride across the flat sands from the mainland to Lindisfarne in horse-drawn carts, following an ancient route known as Pilgrims' Way. A high angle shot records the large number of people as they walk or run directly towards camera across the sands, most with rolled up trousers, bare feet and legs. In the foreground, some pilgrims wait and greet the newcomers. As the group arrives, some look up and smile at the camera, including a young boy in a school uniform.
The film returns to the Pilgrims’ Way causeway. A group of men and women that include a priest walk past camera across the wet sands. A low angle shot records the barefooted pilgrims that follow, many of them women. A woman and a priest wash their feet in pools of water, whilst a line of pilgrims cross the sands in the distant background.
Groups of people are gathered on a sand dune, brushing the sand from their feet and waving to friends off screen to join them.
General view of Lindisfarne Priory ruins, panning down to preparations for a religious ceremony in the grounds, with a makeshift, decorated pavilion structure as altar, and chairs arranged for a congregation. Church officials dressed in vestments kneel briefly and pray by the chairs. A procession lead by an archbishop and other religious figures in ceremonial dress moves towards the altar, followed by a number of choir boys, one holding the long train of a priest. Pilgrims are gathered in the ruins of the priory awaiting the beginning of the service.
Context
This is an early silent Empire News Bulletin newsreel that depicts the annual pilgrimage to Lindisfarne Priory on the Holy Island, Northumberland, reached by a causeway at low tide, where apparently nearly two thousand people walked across the sands from the Northumberland mainland to hear Mass at the historic ruins of Lindisfarne priory. The pilgrims in the film were very well dressed for crossing sand and mud with the fitted bell-shaped hat called the cloche hat, invented in 1908 by...
This is an early silent Empire News Bulletin newsreel that depicts the annual pilgrimage to Lindisfarne Priory on the Holy Island, Northumberland, reached by a causeway at low tide, where apparently nearly two thousand people walked across the sands from the Northumberland mainland to hear Mass at the historic ruins of Lindisfarne priory. The pilgrims in the film were very well dressed for crossing sand and mud with the fitted bell-shaped hat called the cloche hat, invented in 1908 by milliner Caroline Reboux very much in sight.
The Empire News Bulletin was a silent newsreel launched in May 1926 by British Pictorial Productions; it appeared every Monday and Thursday until July 1930, when it was superseded by a synchronised-sound newsreel called the Universal Talking News issued by the same company. The Empire News Bulletin afterwards survived only as the silent edition of the Universal Talking News, for cinemas which had not yet converted to sound. Going on a pilgrimage touches on many aspects of human existence, and undergoing a physical journey to a special place is important in almost all cultures and religions. This destination may be a site given prominence by events or happenings such as a shrine to a saint. Going on a pilgrimage inspired by religious belief is still flourishing in twenty-first century Britain, even if attendance at established churches is down from when this newsreel was filmed in 1929. Pilgrimage also has meaning outside religion with many people journeying to the homes of celebrities, such as Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, or places of significance such as the memorial graves of WW1 in Normandy. Lindisfarne is a place where tourists, birdwatchers and pilgrims can find solace in this area of unspoilt outstanding beauty. In 635, King Oswald gave the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to St. Aidan to establish a monastery and the island has been a place of pilgrimage ever since. The Vikings' raid on Holy Island in 793 marked a period of instability with kingdoms battling for supremacy. Lindisfarne became the base for Christian evangelism in the North of England but by the 14th century clashes between England and Scotland started and the conflict lasted for the next three centuries. The Northumberland coast was strategically important and therefore lead to the construction of major castles such as Bamburgh, Dunstanburgh and Warkworth and the town defences of Berwick. A fort was constructed on Holy Island in 1570-72, which formed the basis for Lindisfarne Castle. Holy Island is cut off twice-daily by fast-moving tides and in the past vertical poles were the only indicators of a safe route between the mainland and island. Even after the causeway was constructed in 1954 the sight of the poles stretching across the sand and mudflats is thought to be one of the most iconic views in Northumberland. The island is within an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the care of the charity English Heritage Trust, with the castle, garden and lime kilns in the care of the National Trust. Of interest to gardeners is that the celebrated gardener Gertrude Jekyll laid out a tiny garden just north of the castle in 1911. https://www.visitnorthumberland.com/holy-islandhttps://www.york.ac.uk/projects/pilgrimage/intro.html |
