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Rope-Making By Hand

1946 , Hadleigh (Suffolk)

Cat no. 50

Rope-making in Hadleigh.

This film was made as a record of a dying craft. Rope making in the rope walk in Pound Lane, Hadleigh is demonstrated by Ben Whiting who has been making rope for sixty years. The film shows a close up shot of Mr. Whiting and then shows him demonstrating the art of rope making. Each stage is explained by the intertitles. Mr. Whiting is shown demonstrating the hand turned wheel and then shown wearing the sisal hemp around his waist, attaching it to the 'whirls' on the wheel and then walking backwards away from the wheel forming the rope. Mr. Whiting demonstrated how thicker rope can be made from this original length. At the end Mr. Whiting shows off the finished result

Keywords

Crafts; Rope-making

Intertitles

Rope making by hand is a dying craft. Ben Whiting of Hadleigh, Suffolk, has been making rope for sixty years. The only machinery used is a hand-turned wheel operating by a pulley two 'whirls'. Ben wears sisal hemp round his waist...... and attaches strands from each side to the 'whirls'.The wheel is turned. As Ben walks back slowly, a thin rope or string is formed by the turning of the whirls from the hemp fed through Ben's fingers. Any thickness of rope can be made by turning together lengths of the result.

Background Information

This was filmed a the Brett Works, Pound Lane, Hadleigh. Ben Whiting lived until the age of 99. In writing to the Archive in 1976 Peter Boulton said that he had had misgivings about making Rope Making By Hand - by 1951 it had been withdrawn because of a lack of interest - but in retrospect was glad that he had done so. In 1946 Peter Boulton and Gilbert Hawker set up Boulton Hawker Films. Their main objective was to make educational films. This is one of a series of films on local crafts made between 1946 and 1947. Boulton Hawker also made films on agriculture, market gardening and geography. (See D. Cleveland, East Anglia on Film, Poppyland Publishing, 1987. See also background information from: Holbrook, Suffolk, 1949, Dairy Farmer.)

Manifestations

Rope-Making By Hand

  • Barcode
    INV312347
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MP4 H264 digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:03:26
    Modification Date
    24/11/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    734272
  • Barcode
    INV340531
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MP4 H264 digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:03:26
    Modification Date
    31/08/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    724592
  • Barcode
    INV397769
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MP4 H264 digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:03:26
    Modification Date
    31/08/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    723802
  • Activities
    Barcode
    INV329297
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    DV digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:02:12
    Modification Date
    15/06/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    715259
  • Activities
    Barcode
    INV358666
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    master digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:02:13
    Modification Date
    14/06/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    715081
  • Barcode
    INV471963
    Canonical Identifier
    A-3567
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Details
    Carrier Type
    16mm film
    Colour System
    colour
    Colour Type
    colour
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:03:28
    Has Image
    Y
    Has Sound
    N
    Identifier
    Image Polarity
    pos
    Modification Date
    03/05/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    706967
    Sound
    silent
  • Activities
    Barcode
    INV216484
    Canonical Identifier
    VP-540
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Duration
    0:03:00
    Identifier
    Modification Date
    25/06/2021
    Parts
    Reference
    562791
  • Activities
    Barcode
    INV283323
    Canonical Identifier
    A-759
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Details
    Carrier Type
    16mm film
    Colour Type
    colour
    Has Image
    Y
    Has Sound
    N
    Identifier
    Image Polarity
    positive
    Modification Date
    25/06/2021
    Parts
    Reference
    560645
    Sound
    silent

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