Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 4341 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| ELI SIMPSON COLLECTION REEL 2 | 1953 | 1953-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White / Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 22 mins 31 secs Credits: Director Eli Simpson Photography J. Tobin Technician E. Percy Subject: Rural Life |
| Summary In the summer of 1953, Eli Simpson set out to make a film for the British Speleological Association called The Birth of a Yorkshire River or The Waters of Mawn. The film collection is comprised of rushes he shot at locations such as Ingleborough Cave, Malham Cove, and Hull Pot, all located in the Yorkshire Dales, and many of the films include both ... |
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Description
In the summer of 1953, Eli Simpson set out to make a film for the British Speleological Association called The Birth of a Yorkshire River or The Waters of Mawn. The film collection is comprised of rushes he shot at locations such as Ingleborough Cave, Malham Cove, and Hull Pot, all located in the Yorkshire Dales, and many of the films include both interior and exterior footage of the caves. The following film was shot on Tuesday, 25th May, 1953 at Malham Cove.
The film opens with a shot of...
In the summer of 1953, Eli Simpson set out to make a film for the British Speleological Association called The Birth of a Yorkshire River or The Waters of Mawn. The film collection is comprised of rushes he shot at locations such as Ingleborough Cave, Malham Cove, and Hull Pot, all located in the Yorkshire Dales, and many of the films include both interior and exterior footage of the caves. The following film was shot on Tuesday, 25th May, 1953 at Malham Cove.
The film opens with a shot of Ingleborough Hall. There are children playing on the grounds of the large estate when it was a residential school. There are children who stand under a bridge and at the top of a waterfall. A couple stand by the edge of a lake and walk near the stream. The entrance to Malham Cove can be seen.
There is a tour group inside the cave. The leader is carrying a lantern while the rest of the cavers are carrying candles to light the way. The go through the cave and explore some of the different caverns. Pools of water are also visible. A few different tour groups make their way through the cave, and the leader points out some of the different stalactites.
Black & White - There are more tours through the cave, and again, the cavers hold candles to help light the way. They point out formations, and the ceilings in the caverns are particularly low. Different visitors come into the cave, and they wear helmets with lights. They continue onto climb through some very close quarters.
Context
A meditative journey over the wide open spaces surrounding Malham Cove to the dark claustrophobic caves with their eerie shapes that lurk buried underneath.
It’s May 1953, and influential and controversial British speleologist recorder Eli Simpson embarks upon an ambitious, but uncompleted, project to make a film, Birth of a Yorkshire River. This clip includes a sojourn around Malham Cove and some romantic images of a couple silhouetted against a still pool of water. In contrast,...
A meditative journey over the wide open spaces surrounding Malham Cove to the dark claustrophobic caves with their eerie shapes that lurk buried underneath.
It’s May 1953, and influential and controversial British speleologist recorder Eli Simpson embarks upon an ambitious, but uncompleted, project to make a film, Birth of a Yorkshire River. This clip includes a sojourn around Malham Cove and some romantic images of a couple silhouetted against a still pool of water. In contrast, black and white film of inside Ingleborough Cave with guide Arnold Brown and his Tilley lamp brings out the textures of the rock formations. This is one of many reels of rushes that were made under the direction of Eli Simpson, founding member and Recorder of the British Speleological Association. The idea was to make a film titled “Birth of a Yorkshire River” or “The Waters of Mawn” (a puzzling title). Simpson, in control of a fracturing British Speleological Association, got the help of his Settle neighbour Eddy Perry as technician and camera operator, and BSA member John Tobin, a photographer from Keighley, also behind the camera. The filming, poorly resourced over two years, eventually petered out. The whole enterprise has been meticulously recorded in a film made by fellow caveman filmmaker Sid Perou, who has also made a film about Simpson. |
