At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
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Marjorie Glasspool Films Her Family in Alton
Marjorie Glasspool's home movie captures a variety of events and occasions experienced by a Hampshire family
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Overview
This film made, by Marjorie Glasspool in the 1930s, starts with a gathering outside Farnham Castle. We then see the family eating ice-cream by a lake. On a trip to London we see traffic, guardsmen and the Zoo. Two weddings follow after which we see relatives arrive by a rural bus. A pair of sea bathers can be seen posing for the camera before the film ends at Danesfort - the family home. The film ends with more scenes of gardeners at work while members of the household look on.
Though technically flawed, Marjorie Glasspool's home-movie, shot on 9.5mm stock, offers glimpses of a vanished Britain. The bustle of London traffic, as seen in the middle of the film, contrasts sharply with the quiet of rural roads shared by motorbikes, cars, buses and cattle. Overall there is little street furniture to be seen and houses are few though there are a number of enamel signs advertising Craven A cigarettes, Lyons Cakes and Oxo. Another interesting feature is the man selling Wall's ice cream from an adapted bicycle.
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