Spittle/Dixon - Reel A

Collection of home movies, films of family outings and travelogues

The film begins with shots of waves crashing against a quayside. Then we see a baby, Heather, being held and playing with a toy. A man, Billy, rides a horse and jumps over a hedgerow. In the next section we see two boys use an Atco lawn mower, several shots of Heather being held by different adults, a boy leapfrogging over a man then both walking towards the camera and a boy playing tennis. Next there are several shots showing people skating on a frozen pond at Madingley Hall. After this we see children playing with a ball in the garden. A section filmed at Hunstanton beach shows Heather playing with a bucket and spade, then her parents take her paddling in the sea. Two men arrive at Madingley Pond in a rowing boat. Several people gather and help place nets then the crowd look at a net of the caught fish, a boy holds up a wriggling eel. Men help pull the nets in and put the fish in containers. After this there is footage of London Zoo, with shots of bears, an elephant being ridden, pelicans and giraffe. Then we see the servants of a college taking part in different sports, including knocking each other over whilst in sacks and an egg and spoon race. The next section was filmed at Filey beach. Children dig a hole in the sand, a man relaxes in a deck chair, a man and woman walk along the sea shore and boys play in the ocean. Heather has a ride on a donkey. There are shots of boats heading out to sea and of the waves along the shore. Footage shows Betty Nuthall playing tennis, then Heather playing in the garden and Rugby steeplechase race. Participants jump through ditches and run across fields. The final segment shows a horse race at Coxton. Riders jump over a hedgerow, one man is thrown over by his horse.

Featured Buildings

Madingley Hall, Cambridgeshire

Other Places

Madingley, Cambridgeshire; Hunstanton, Norfolk; Regent’s Park, London; Filey, North Yorkshire; Rugby, Warwickshire; Caxton, Cambridgeshire

Background Information

The winter of 1928/29 was one of the coldest on record, with temperatures falling to -17C during February 1929 – around the time when the skaters in the film were at Madingley Hall. On February 17, three Cambridge undergraduates skated on the rivers Cam and Ouse from Cambridge to Ely and back, a distance of 40 miles, a feat which had not been accomplished since 1895. Betty May Nuthall Shoemaker was a world top ten ranked tennis player in the late 1920s and early 1930s. [Source for background information: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/weather/4550024/Snow-Britain-February-1929.html]