Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 3322 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| COTTINGHAM RAILWAY STATION | 1973 | 1973-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: Standard 8 Colour: Colour Sound: Mute Duration: 15 mins 55 secs Credits: Geoff Gooding and the sixth form of Kelvin Hall High School in Hull Subject: RAILWAYS TRANSPORT WORKING LIFE |
| Summary Made by members of the sixth form of Kelvin Hall High School in Hull, this film presents a day in the life of Cottingham Railway Station. The film shows commuters who pass through the station as well as the railway staff at work. |
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Description
Made by members of the sixth form of Kelvin Hall High School in Hull, this film presents a day in the life of Cottingham Railway Station. The film shows commuters who pass through the station as well as the railway staff at work.
Title: ‘Station Cameo’
The film opens with a Northern Dairies milk cart passing by a cat on a street. The milkman delivers a bottle of milk, and the clock face on St Mary’s Church in Cottingham displays 8 o’clock. The rail track, footbridge, buildings and...
Made by members of the sixth form of Kelvin Hall High School in Hull, this film presents a day in the life of Cottingham Railway Station. The film shows commuters who pass through the station as well as the railway staff at work.
Title: ‘Station Cameo’
The film opens with a Northern Dairies milk cart passing by a cat on a street. The milkman delivers a bottle of milk, and the clock face on St Mary’s Church in Cottingham displays 8 o’clock. The rail track, footbridge, buildings and semaphore signal are shown at Cottingham Station. The Station Master arrives on his Honda C70, unlocks the Waiting Room and makes himself a cup of tea. Someone buys a train ticket, passengers wait on the platform and a train arrives. Everyone gets aboard and the departure is phoned through to the next station by a woman working there. Another train arrives, passengers disembark, hand in their tickets, and cross the footbridge.
Yet another train arrives, with many more passengers disembarking, and again the woman gets on the railway phone. A railway worker pulls a barrow, and a group of people walk by. The film shows in close up some old gas lights on or near the Station. The clock shows 3:15. Workmen unload newspapers from a train onto a trolley which is then pushed along the platform. Again the woman rings through the train departure.
At Thwaite Gates, there is a railway level crossing on Thwaite Street. The level crossing comes down, and people wait in their cars for a train to pass. Inside the signal box, the signalman pulls the signals off, and the traffic moves again. A freight train passes through the station, and a woman then crosses over the walkway at the Station, after which the sign is shown stating: ‘Passengers must not cross the line except by means of the footbridge.’ Another train arrives with many passengers getting on and off, including a group of working women with bicycles.
Another goods train passes, and the signalman is seen at work pulling levers and operating the level crossing. A young man kisses his girlfriend goodbye as she is about to depart on a train. There is a shot of a line of cars waiting at the level crossing from low down through the underside of a passing train. Some children and adults wait on the platform for a train before the gas lamps are lit up at night time. The level crossing, traffic and a train are also shown at night time.
The End.
Context
This film is believed to have been made in 1973 by the sixth form of Kelvin Hall High School, on Bricknell Avenue in Hull. It was made under the supervision of Geoff Gooding, a teacher in Technical subjects at the school. The school had been presented with a cine camera in 1964 by the then departing sixth form (now unfortunately gone). Geoff had a particular interest in audio and visual media, and he used the camera to make films of, among other things, school plays, trips abroad and...
This film is believed to have been made in 1973 by the sixth form of Kelvin Hall High School, on Bricknell Avenue in Hull. It was made under the supervision of Geoff Gooding, a teacher in Technical subjects at the school. The school had been presented with a cine camera in 1964 by the then departing sixth form (now unfortunately gone). Geoff had a particular interest in audio and visual media, and he used the camera to make films of, among other things, school plays, trips abroad and camping trips, sports days, the construction of new school buildings and of a visit by the BBC for a new pilot quiz. Geoff managed to keep hold of the films and has compiled a list of the collection. He has also made some DVD copies of some of the footage, especially for the School’s Golden Jubilee in 2007.
That some cinematic expertise had been built up and passed on is evident from this film. As well as the shots from various and unusual vantage points, they have managed to capture the rail passengers and staff as they go about their business in an obviously unobtrusive way. Goode states that it is a rather plain station, but having four level crossings. He notes too that it had a massive cycle compound at both ends, and evidence of its use can be seen in the film. Today the school calls itself a ‘Specialist Science College’, although it no longer has a sixth form. A 2009 Ofsted Report was favourable, noting that it is a “satisfactory and improving school”. A relatively wealthy village on the edge of Hull, Cottingham has been the home to many who have taught at the University of Hull. Not least of these is the intellectual Jacob Bronowski, who taught Mathematics at the University College Hull (then a part of the University of London, before becoming independent in 1954), and who is best remembered for his seminal BBC Documentary, The Ascent of Man, in 1973. Cottingham is a commuter village for Hull – claiming to be the largest village in the country – and the railway line into Hull, and also to Beverley remains viable. Hence, unlike other lines in the East Riding and Humber area, the line from Hull through Cottingham to Bridlington avoided the Beeching axe of the 1960s. Not so lucky were the two lines passing through Market Weighton and those going east from Hull to Withernsea and Hornsea – see the Context for No.6 Railway - Market Weighton Railway Station Closure & Demolition (1965). It is fitting that it was school age students who made this film, as in the early 1970s an interest in trains was still regarded as normal for young people – although, it has to be admitted, far more with boys than girls! That is, before it became very uncool. Trainspotting as a hobby only really emerged after the Second World War when Ian Allan published his ABC British Railways Locomotives books. A railway enthusiast as a teenager in the 1930s – despite losing a leg at the age of 15 – Allen published his first booklet (for a shilling), aged just 19, in 1942, despite the paper shortage of the war. This 16 page booklet of Southern Locomotives was soon followed by others, selling 200,000 copies by the end of 1944. These small inexpensive books listed all the loco numbers by engine type in each region, ready and waiting to be ticked off when seen. These sold over a million a year in their heyday, and continued to be published through to 1989. The 1950s and 60s were the heyday of trainspotting, with steam engines gradually being replaced by diesel and electric. As Michael Harvey points out in his recollections of his exploits as a trainspotter in the 1950s and 60s, this was a hobby that was far from boring for the many adventurous teenagers who became addicts at that time. Apart from anything else it involved travelling the country to new places, often in clubs, and getting involved in all sorts of pranks, as well taking many risks, on British Rail property. If one wants to get a feel for the excitement trainspotting could evoke in youths from the late 1940s onwards have a read of the ever excitable Brian Blessed in Trainspotting Days (References). In fact teenagers would often take fatal risks on railway lines, leading Ian Allan to early on establish Locospotters clubs which required swearing an oath not to trespass on railway property. This grew to 260,000 members, taking enthusiasts all over Britain on Ian Allan steam specials. As a type, the railway enthusiast was identified, and described, in Ian Allan’s own Railway World magazine as early as 1969, given the nickname of a ‘Gricer’ – a name linked with grouse shooters (other suggestions as to the origins of this term are welcome). Trainspotters have become the object of much ridicule, as the archetypal anorak – apparently the first usage of the term ‘anorak’ was about the time this film was made, in the early 1970s, aboard the Mi Amigo pirate radio station off Holland by Andy Archer in the second coming of Radio Caroline (see Guardian Notes and Queries, References). That is, as ‘sartorially challenged’ obsessive middle aged men who still live at home with their mothers. It has even been suggested that they may be suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. But this disparagement might be considered by trainspotters as simply reflecting changing fashions as to what is currently considered more acceptable interests or passions. See also the great photos on the ‘Demise of the‘ gricer’’ link, References. Whatever ones take on the railways as a hobby, this little film can stand as an addition to those many memorable films made by the British Transport Films production unit in the 1950s and 60s. It shows the central place that the railways have played in the life of the nation, and also a time when things were done at a more leisurely pace – when railwayworkers gave the abbreviation for the National Union of Railwayworkers (NUR) the added meaning of, ‘No Use Rushing’. References Michael Harvey, Forget the Anorak: what trainspotting was really like, The History Press, 2009. Will Adams (editor), Foreword by Brian Blessed, Trainspotting Days, Silver Link Publishing, 2006. The Ian Allan Group Ian Allan, This much I know, The Guardian What do the British mean when they call somebody an "anorak"? Guardian Notes and Queries Alex Renton, The man who invented trainspotting: It has become a dirty word, but why? The Independent Demise of the‘ gricer’ Kelvin Hall High School Further Reading N.B.A., ‘Demise of the Gricer’, Railway World, December 1969, p. 550 |
