Georgian Background

Educational film illustrating life in eighteenth century Georgian England through enacted scenes, museum objects and architecture.

A box is opened to reveal the film title. This educational film illustrates typical features of eighteenth century Georgian England through enacted scenes, museum objects and architecture. A mail stagecoach waits outside an inn, while an ostler changes the horses, and the passengers take their seats inside and on top of the carriage. As the coach is driven along a road between hedges, a new landscape feature resulting from the Enclosure Acts, attention is drawn to the poor road surface. The guard blows a horn and the coach approaches a tollgate (Swinford Bridge Toll Gate near Eynsham, Oxfordshire), where a board lists toll charges for carriage and various animals. A masked highwayman is shown on horseback holding two pistols. A second commentator explains the post table of fares and routes for the mail coach. Towns along the route are illustrated with a painting by James Pollard and examples of houses typical of Georgian architecture with sash windows, parapets, doorways with pillars inspired by Greek architecture, fanlights, pediments, steps and ironwork railings. In a typically Georgian interior, ladies drink tea while exchanging gossip, with a locked tea caddy on the table. The types of domestic china are illustrated with examples of Dresden, Staffordshire, Wedgwood (copy of the Portland Vase) and Rockingham ware. In a kitchen, attention is drawn to the alcove cupboard, sand glass (hour glass), wool winder and spinning wheel. A woman in a lace cap plays a harpsichord while men in pale wigs converse, and one takes a paper from a drawer and reads it. The library of the educated man is illustrated with examples from Goldsmith, Gray, Cowper, Dr Johnson, Thomas Paine and 'The Tour of Doctor Syntax' illustrated by Rowlandson. Dress is illustrated through portraits by Morland, Gainsborough, Reynolds’ paintings of children, Romney and Constable’s painting of Flatford Mill, Suffolk. A sequence on industrial development opens with a water mill, followed by working examples of Kay’s flying shuttle, Hargreaves’ spinning jenny, Arkwright’s spinning frame and Crompton’s mule. A view of a canal is followed by examples of new farming machinery. Deserted cottages in the countryside are contrasted with the town homes of wealthy people, with both described as typical of Georgian England.

Featured Buildings

Swinford Bridge Gate Tollhouse, near Eynsham, Oxfordshire

Keywords

History; Georgian England; Eighteenth century history; Architecture; Urban history; Rural history; Industry; Industrial history; Industrial revolution; Agriculture; Agricultural revolution; Domestic life; Class; Transport; Art; Literature; Costume

Background Information

Produced with the assistance of: The Geffrye Museum The Science Museum The Hertford Museum The Medici Society In the Informational Film Year Book 1947, the listing for Gateway Film Productions of 84 Powys Lane, Palmer's Green, London N13, educational film producers, lists these history films in Kodachrome: The House in which You Live (400 feet), Georgian Background (400 feet) and Elizabethan England (350 feet), each available in sound and silent versions, with teaching notes available separately. All films for outright sale only.