Berwick Film Night - March 11th 2011
On Friday 18th March the Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office is holding an Archive Film Night at the Maltings. This is a Film Night with a difference having involved both young and old in putting it together.
For the past year, Berwick office has been working with the main Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn and the Time Travel Northumberland Project led by Juliet Hardy in trying to locate old cine film of the county and at the same time, introduce young people to their heritage. The Archive Film Night is the culmination of the work.
During the year, the Record Office has located unseen archive footage of the North Northumberland area, particularly Berwick, some of which will be shown on the evening. In addition, some young people from the South Northumberland area have been viewing some of the films and they have created their own musical soundtracks for two of them – The Crowning of the Salmon Queen at Tweedmouth Feast in 1980 and The Tercentenary March of the Coldstream Guards through Berwick in August 1950. Their work will be premiered at the Film Night.
Whilst trying to track down old films of the area and encouraging their owners to allow the Record Office to copy them, it has come across some gems including footage of Boys Brigade Parades in Berwick in the 1960s, amateur cine taken by Fred Stott in the 1960s and a short film of the May Fair and the Horse Procession which was taken in 1911. This last film is the oldest surviving film the Record Office is aware of for Northumberland and believes that it has probably has not been seen since it was last shown in Berwick in 1911! All of these films and others will be shown at the Film Night. It is a great opportunity to see Berwick as it was in days gone by and some of the events which happened here, including the Tweedmouth Feast and the Bed Race up West Street which was part of the Berwick Festival in 1969.
Tickets (price: £5.00) can be obtained from the Maltings Theatre. For further information, please contact Linda Bankier at Berwick Record Office (01289 301865) or the Maltings on (01289 330999)