The collection

• Places
• Subjects
• Productions
• Film-makers
• Related collections

Selected films

Contact and access

Wessex Film and Sound Archive - The Collection

Wessex Film and Sound Archive holds approximately 7,500 cine film items, 1,300 video recordings and 8,500 sound recordings. The archive holds moving image material from a wide variety of sources including amateur film and video, corporate and promotional films, films by local organisations and civic bodies, local newsreel material, and professional documentary films. The archive provides educational access to selections of material from the regional television broadcasters BBC South and Meridian Broadcasting. In addition the archive's sound collection contains local radio tapes, oral history recordings, gramophone discs and tapes of local interest. The archive's position within the Record Office allows its film and sound collection to be seen within the context of other related local historical sources such as official documents, parish records, maps, diaries and photographs.

Places

The geographical areas featured in the Wessex Film and Sound Archive's collection span the counties of Hampshire, East Dorset, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight. The region's cities, towns, villages and countryside are depicted on film in the collection through many amateur and professional films. These places include the cities of Southampton, Winchester, Portsmouth, along with the towns and villages of Alton, Basingstoke, Botley, Burghclere, Chalton, Eastleigh, Fordingbridge, Gosport, Havant, Lymington, Lyndhurst, Minstead, Petersfield, Romsey, Christchurch, Dorchester, Weymouth, and Salisbury. The rural landscape and agricultural heritage of the region are also well illustrated throughout the collection through films showing changing farming practices, countryside and wildlife.

Subjects and periods

The archive's moving image collection features material dating from the turn of the twentieth century up to recent times and includes subjects and themes that touch on every sphere of life in the Wessex region in that time. The archive's collection features subjects such as the maritime heritage of the area, military history, transport, life during the Second World War, civic and local events, towns and village communities, and family life. The archive also holds films by and about organisations such as local councils, churches, schools, hospitals, public agencies, local businesses and work places.

Early film and cinema - The earliest film relating to the collection is one amongst a small number of surviving films made around the turn of the last century, by Southsea based film pioneer, Alfred J. West (see Key Film-Makers below). The archive also houses a number of early news films depicting local events such as royal visits and sporting events, or showing street scenes and locations around the region.

Coastal and waterways - There is a strong connection with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, and with other maritime industries in the region. This association is reflected within the archive's collection and maritime and naval film holdings span the last century. Naval subjects include films of warships and ship building, training and exercises, reviews and parades, armaments, and Second World War military preparations. Some of the earliest films relate to the collection of naval activities dating from 1897 by film pioneer Alfred J West. Other maritime subjects include film of liners, yachts, ferries, merchant ships, commercial shipbuilding, and ports. The major naval and commercial port of Southampton is situated within the archive's region, and the archive holds many films that illustrate aspects of this industrial maritime centre. The Archive's region also has strong links with the Mary Rose which was raised from the Solent in 1982.

War-time - During the Second World War, the South of England became a centre for military aircraft manufacture and related activities as well as a main embarkation point for naval and merchant ships. The archive features films from this period from the Army, RAF, Royal Observer Corps Museum, Southampton Docks and Elliotts of Newbury who manufactured components for wartime aircraft including Spitfires. The archive contains film footage of women making aircraft components as well as working on the trains. Second World War footage in the archive also consists of some amateur films made despite the restrictions at the time. Some of this film includes footage of civil defence volunteers in Swaythling district, barrage balloons, the School of Navigation, along with some family and business activities in the region during the war. The archive houses many films showing various activities of the British Army outside of war-time filmed by local amateurs or donated by military museums in the region. These include, amongst others, the films of the 1930s Aldershot military tattoos, training films of the Parachute Regiment, the Royal Hussars Regiment and the Army of Physical Training Corps' films of the British Olympic squads.

Transport - The archive has a large collection of material on transport including aviation, trains, buses, trucks and trams as well as general street scenes from around the region. There are many films in the archive on the region's railways, including amateur material for example on the Southern region steam trains in the 1960s, as well as documentary and commercial productions such as films from the Southern Railway Film Unit and British Transport Films productions. Military aviation and footage of transport on the Second World War home front also feature in the collection.

Regional and national events - The archive holds a great deal of material relating to national celebrations, and local events and activities filmed by amateurs or commissioned by public bodies. Many of these films feature local activities such as village fairs, shows, anniversaries, sailing regattas, royal visits, and official openings. The collection also houses films covering regional celebrations of national events such as VE day, Festival of Britain events, coronations and Jubilee celebrations.

Recent and current material - To encourage the continued making and depositing of community films, the Millennium Community Videos project was initiated by the archive in 1999. This resulted in the depositing of over 30 amateur videos chronicling the activities of communities in various towns and villages of Hampshire. In addition to this, archive recordings by Wessex Film and Sound Archive staff continue to bring in new video material that helps to illustrate contemporary life in the region. Such work has included capturing live regional events as well as making contemporary recordings of elements of the local community and work places.

Production Types

Amateur film - The archive holds many amateur films showing family life and holidays, footage of the regions seaside resorts, rural towns and villages, along with the events and social rituals of every day life that are featured in them. The archive also holds copies of film material of regional interest from members of many of the region's cine societies who often made short amateur fiction films, captured regional events, or filmed subjects of interest such as the region's railways.

Corporate and promotional films - Corporate films in the collection include many films made by local businesses and industries to promote their products and services or as internal training or information films. Ship-building and engineering firms feature strongly in the collection alongside other commercial sectors represented in the archive. Examples of companies include, ship-building firm Vosper Thornycroft, piston ring manufacturers Wellworthy, the Huntley & Palmer biscuit factory, newspaper firms Portsmouth News and Southampton Echo, and retailers Portsea Island Mutual Co-operative Society (PIMCO). The seaside resorts of the region have also been promoted through the medium of film and are shown well through tourist publicity films in the collection. These include a variety of films spanning different decades made to advertise the resort of Bournemouth along with films made about the Isle of Wight, Weymouth, Southampton, Portsmouth and Southsea

Local topicals and newsreels - Copies of national newsreel items of local interest have been deposited in the archive, including copies of items from the British Pathé collection of local importance. In addition to national newsreel footage, many locally made films covering 'topical' news stories and scenes from the first few decades of the twentieth century are held in the archive. Many such films were made by local film-makers and cinema owners capturing pictures of local people and crowds at events in order to attract in audiences to see themselves on screen. Early news subjects in the collection include events such as mayoral processions, the unveiling of war memorials and inaugural flights of new aircraft.

Public and charitable organisations - The archive holds many films made by civic and public bodies, such as local councils, churches, schools, universities, hospitals, charities and services. Council films include those deposited by Hampshire County Council, Portsmouth, Southampton and Winchester City Councils and Romsey Town Council. Films by other public, community and charitable organisations, include local schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, the Hampshire fire brigade and the Forestry Commission amongst others.

Television - Wessex Film and Sound Archive has an agreement with BBC South and the local ITV broadcaster Meridian, to make available selections of their television material for non commercial use. This includes local television news broadcasts, documentaries, programmes of local interest and related documentation.

Key film-makers

Related collections

A major feature of this archive is that it combines both audio and visual material in its collection. Alongside the film and video material, the archive collects and holds recordings of spoken word, oral history, music and entertainment. The archive has a large collection of recordings of local radio and local hospital radio broadcasts including BBC Radio Solent, Ocean Sound, Winchester and Southampton hospital radio. The oral history collection contains recordings of people's memories of places, activities, work, transport, military life, the Second World War, family life and features regional dialects. The spoken word collection contains recordings of speeches given by local and national dignitaries, extracts from radio broadcasts, sound 'adverts' and amateur recordings. The music and entertainment collections contain recordings of local orchestras, bands and other entertainment pieces, including a major collection of music from the Bournemouth Orchestras. The archive also provides reference-viewing copies of films of local interest that are held by other organisations. These include films held by the BFI National Film and Television Archive, the Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archive, BBC South, Meridian Broadcasting and British Pathé. Although the archive does not routinely collect commercial films, it has also purchased copies of some nationally distributed commercial films and videos that are of particular interest to the region.

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