As can be seen, this is in fact three films put together from 1936, 1945 and 1953, all set in winter and showing family and friends out enjoying the snow and ice. They were made by Sheffield amateur filmmaker Kenneth Tofield.   The first part of the film from 1936 is the earliest film that the YFA has of Kenneth’s.   He carried on making many films of his family through the 1950s, and has one of Skiing on a winter’s day on Boofirs Field in 1961.  He started with black and white film before...

As can be seen, this is in fact three films put together from 1936, 1945 and 1953, all set in winter and showing family and friends out enjoying the snow and ice. They were made by Sheffield amateur filmmaker Kenneth Tofield.   The first part of the film from 1936 is the earliest film that the YFA has of Kenneth’s.   He carried on making many films of his family through the 1950s, and has one of Skiing on a winter’s day on Boofirs Field in 1961.  He started with black and white film before quickly moving onto colour once it became available in the late 1930s.   He broke off from filmmaking during the Second World War. As can be seen here, Kenneth put a lot of attention into making his films, adopting quite a quite professional approach, usually providing full titles and intertitles, and always using a tripod. All the films that the YFA have by Kenneth were made with 16mm film using a Bell and Howell – they were the first to manufacture a spring-driven l6mm cine camera as early as 1923.  He occasionally put on film shows to local groups beyond family and friends. 

 

It isn’t certain where all the films were shot, except for those places mentioned, such as Forge Dam in Fulwood, where Kenneth lived on Brooklands Crescent.   Some of it looks as if it might be in Endcliffe Park, but locals will probably be able to identify the places in the film. Most of the films are of family and friends out in the countryside, and many in winter out walking, skiing or skating on ice.  The film from 1953 clearly shows Kenneth playing on the ice with his young son, who can also be seen in another lovely film made by Kenneth, also in 1953, In My Garden. The ice rink that the skaters are on looks very much like one that appears in one of the films of the Rotherham filmmaker Charles Chislett, filming about the same time as this in 1947, and, who knows, they might each turn up on each other’s films.

 

Strangely the films were all made in years when, apparently, there weren’t especially heavy snowfalls. Famously, during the Little Ice Age – which began with the terrible winter of 1564-5 and lasted 150 years – the Thames used to freeze over and people skated on it.   This in fact become a fairly regular event even after this, especially in the decade from 1810 to 1819 when frost fairs were held on the Thames.   The years 1937-42 were all snowy, with numerous falls of 1-2ft, and occasional falls (such as 1940-41) in which snow depths of up to 16 foot (drifts) were recorded in Scotland and Northern England.   Kenneth made another film called White World in 1945, which also shows heavy snow blizzards and piles of snow. Yet the next recorded bad winter was the famous one of 1946/47 which, according to sources, began on 21 January 1947, bringing large drifts causing roads and railways to be blocked. It isn’t clear whether this s film dates from this winter or the previous one. But large snowfalls weren’t uncommon, and not all of it is officially recorded. 1953 was apparently an average year for snowfall, although there were blizzards in many parts, with 1ft recorded in Northern England. 

 

 The films show just how responsive people were in getting out when the snow came, as it regularly did.  Skiing, skating and tobogganing all become popular pastimes.   The oldest pair of skates known date back to about 3000 B.C., found at the bottom of a lake in Switzerland. It is known that people skated over the frozen canals and waterways of Scandinavia and the Netherlands about 1000 years ago.  These were made from animal bones, with the first pair of all-iron skates invented by a Scotsman in 1592. In the following century traveling on blades between villages was a useful and popular means of transport in Holland, and it was here that the Dutch added a narrow metal double edged blade, eliminating the need for poles.   It was the Dutch too that organized the first world championship in 1889.

 

The modern skate developed in the US on 1848, with and a lighter, sharper, all-steel blade.  It was here too that figure skating really developed by Jackson Haines, an American ballet dancer who brought the moves of ballet into skating from the 1860s until his death in 1876. He also developed the two-plate all metal blade in 1865, and took advantage of the blade being attached directly to the boots allowing for dance moves, jumps and spins. The next major innovation came in 1914 when a blade maker from Minnesota invented the first closed toe blade from one piece of steel, making them even lighter and stronger, and better suited for figure skating. 

 

But it was Norway's Sonja Henie who popularized figure skating during the 1920s and 1930s. After the war figure skating reached a peak in popularity with the construction of new ice rinks, more intensive training, and more emphasis on the free skate. Toboggans, however, originated on the other side of the Atlantic, in Canada.   They were used by indigenous tribes, and the word "toboggan" is a French mispronunciation of Micmac word "taba'gan."

 

Recent bad winters have again seen people rushing out to the snowy hills with their toboggans – skates and skis being a bit less in evidence.   With schools being closed because of icy roads, fears have been expressed that children prefer playing in the snow to being at school. But it seems that on this issue at least, the majority view that this is no bad thing – it makes a healthy change from classrooms, and provides a memorable experience – may well prevail. This film provides fresh evidence in favour of this view.

 

References

 

Stephen Williams, Outdoor recreation and the urban environment, Thomson Learning, 1995.

The history of British winters

Definition of a Toboggan, ehow