Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 4469 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
HAPPY SEASIDE DAYS | 1956 | 1956-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 9 mins 22 secs Subject: Seaside Family Life |
Summary This film shows the Brackenbury family at various sea side towns including along the east coast of Yorkshire as well as trips to Skegness and Blackpool, featuring the children Aline, Enid and Michael. The intertitles in this film are all very interesting as many of them are spelled out in pebbles on the sand indicating at which seaside town the family is spending their time. |
Description
This film shows the Brackenbury family at various sea side towns including along the east coast of Yorkshire as well as trips to Skegness and Blackpool, featuring the children Aline, Enid and Michael. The intertitles in this film are all very interesting as many of them are spelled out in pebbles on the sand indicating at which seaside town the family is spending their time.
Title - Happy Seaside Days
An intertitle shows the title of the film spelled out in pebbles on the sand, and then...
This film shows the Brackenbury family at various sea side towns including along the east coast of Yorkshire as well as trips to Skegness and Blackpool, featuring the children Aline, Enid and Michael. The intertitles in this film are all very interesting as many of them are spelled out in pebbles on the sand indicating at which seaside town the family is spending their time.
Title - Happy Seaside Days
An intertitle shows the title of the film spelled out in pebbles on the sand, and then another reads "Flamboro' Head North Landing".
The camera looks at white cliffs and waves rolling in. Aline and Enid watch the sea and then play with seaweed. There are rows of wooden boats on the beach. It is quite busy. Some children paddle. Michael slides down the chute which pulls the fishing boats up from the shore.
Intertitle: "Filey".
The intertitles in this film are all very interesting. This one and most of the others feature little figures and props laid out in the sand, and all are spelled out in pebbles. Aline, Enid and Michael on a merry go round while a the attendant in a white jacket with a green collar and wearing large black sunglasses stands behind. The children then go on swings and in the sea, the little girls holding hands and with mother in a polka dot swimming one piece costume. They go on a horse drawn carriage ride (which has Burr's painted on the front) across the beach and then on ponies.
Intertitle: "Bridlington".
A boat goes past, marked "The Bridlington Queen". It makes its way over a choppy looking sea. There is another similar boat nearby, along with a boat that has a large chimney funnelling a mass of black smoke.
Some people are driven down the promenade on a cart made to look as if being pulled by an elephant. Then we see children on a miniature train track. There are also some driving cars round tracks in a park.
Intertitle: "Skegness".
The sisters again go for a ride on a miniature train track. The three children drive a boat on a pond, with Michael doing the steering. Then they feed the ducks. At a park, they go on a large swing all at the same time, and then on a big rocking horse.
Intertitle: "Southport".
They visit the Southport Flower Show, where there are many flowers along the promenade. The girls walk past topiary and then all three children look at a clock made out of flowers.
Intertitle: "Blackpool".
The beach is very busy. The tower is visible in the background. Two women lay asleep on the sand, both wearing polka dot dresses. The sisters too lay on the sand in their swimming costumes. One of the girls makes sandcastles with little flags in the top. There is a puppet show, which looks like Little Red Riding Hood. A large audience watches, with many adults holding children up to see.
A very young child plays with a wooden spade in the sand. A group of adults play cricket on the beach. Michael and his sister play with a beach ball, and then the two sisters feed the pigeons.
Intertitle: "Hornsea".
The children go for a ride on a mini train which goes along the front. There is a shed with "Kiddie's Corner" painted on it, with boat swings and other rides next to it, and with Greenway’s ice cream stall in the background. Then we see yet more cars on tracks.
Intertitle: "Sandsend".
The children make sandcastles. They write their names next to their castles in pebbles: "Aline", "Enid" and "Michael".
"The End".
Context
An enterprising family make the most of, not one, but eight seaside beaches dotted around the north of England, all in one summer.
This is a wonderful amateur film of family days out at various seaside resorts on the east coast of Yorkshire, Blackpool, Southport and Skegness, filmed in Kodachrome in 1956. All the joys that made these resorts such great attractions in the post-war period are on display, from paddling in the sea to puppet shows on the beach, showing that rides for children...
An enterprising family make the most of, not one, but eight seaside beaches dotted around the north of England, all in one summer.
This is a wonderful amateur film of family days out at various seaside resorts on the east coast of Yorkshire, Blackpool, Southport and Skegness, filmed in Kodachrome in 1956. All the joys that made these resorts such great attractions in the post-war period are on display, from paddling in the sea to puppet shows on the beach, showing that rides for children don’t have to be of the giant theme park variety to be great fun. This film is one of over sixty films made by amateur filmmaker Fred Brackenbury between 1948 and 1966. Fred was a member of Harrogate Cine Club, and made all the films with a 16mm cine camera, virtually all in Kodachrome. He made films for Harrogate Council, and other documentaries on Yorkshire, some with a separate soundtrack with commentaries by his wife, Nora. They also had a love of flowers, hence their visit to the Southport Flower Show, which has been running since 1924, and continues to this day. |