Mountain Ash, Glamorgan, Wales (1926)

Miners and their families in the mining towns of the Welsh valleys just before the General Strike of May 1926, an unsuccessful attempt to force the government to act to prevent wage reduction and worsening conditions for coal miners.
This extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally restored by the BFI National Archive. Britain seen in colour for the first time was heralded as a great technical advance for the cinema audience - now we can view a much improved image, but one which still stays true to the principles of the colour process.
The rather haphazard journey from Land's End to John O'Groats creates a series of moving picture postcards. Look out for shots containing the component colours - red and blue-green - such as when a little girl in a red coat and hat walks among peacocks in the grounds of a castle, and three girls with red curly hair pose by the sea at Torquay.
The car is a Vauxhall D-type - considered a sporty model at the time. A long-distance journey by car was a relatively new concept, with none of the amenities en route now taken for granted. The visit to a petrol station shows smoking on the forecourt: no health and safety issues back then! The travelogue ends with a series of recognisable London landmarks. Much remains the same - one major exception being the volume of traffic on the roads. (Jan Faull)
To buy the DVD click here - filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/...
All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collect...

Пікірлер: 18

  • @lorrie4661
    @lorrie46612 жыл бұрын

    This is so interesting \ emotional to see. My great grandad was a miner here and my grandad George was born here in 1919. The two of them moved to Ireland in 1924 as the rest of their family died from TB. I’d love to make he trip over and retrace their steps a little bit.

  • @ceiberman
    @ceiberman15 жыл бұрын

    The pits have since gone, but apart from that the old town hasn't changed in the slightest.

  • @ruthhard
    @ruthhard16 жыл бұрын

    Brilliant. I'm sure there's a few of the older customers in work who'd recognise those faces.

  • @3tangle3
    @3tangle314 жыл бұрын

    this was where my grandpa was born in 1928.....was more welsh speaking back then although it was 'bred' out of grandpa as it was considered mere 'patois' which ran against the british empires principles..or so the teachers used to say lol

  • @wettheworld
    @wettheworld15 жыл бұрын

    fascinating old video of mount,would like to know who the mother and baby are

  • @OldWelshGuy
    @OldWelshGuy2 жыл бұрын

    Is that Cwm Cynon Colliery? Not far enough down to be 'Kyber' Ceiber and also on the wrong side of the river.

  • @DOCTORDROTT
    @DOCTORDROTT15 жыл бұрын

    Sad to see Mountain Ash today.May not have been the healthiest place to like.Thanks to the phurnacite.

  • @cervelo9465
    @cervelo94653 жыл бұрын

    Mountain Ash, not too far from Abercynon or as you can call it now, Aber Sign On

  • @Cadwaladr2012
    @Cadwaladr201211 жыл бұрын

    I agree...my family was from here, lost 4 men in the senghenydd explosion......aye trillions of pounds of resources were mined and shipped out of Wales.....Where is the glorious inheritance......gone into the pockets of the london elites! (then wasted)! (I should know my fathers family used to be london elites lol)

  • @jockohara9723
    @jockohara97233 жыл бұрын

    My great grandfather was from here

  • @davidrees1578
    @davidrees157811 жыл бұрын

    Top class!

  • @cervelo9465
    @cervelo94653 жыл бұрын

    Came up in my feed, 10.03.21. Wales gave away all its natural resources and natural wealth. Coal, Ore, Water, Hydro, Wave, etc. Wales could and should have been separated from England, economically speaking, Wales could and should have been a Wealthy country. Mountain Ash looks almost the same 95 years later. Except productive industry now gone.

  • @Ingens_Scherz
    @Ingens_Scherz15 жыл бұрын

    It's "The Ace of Spades" by Motorhead.

  • @germs123
    @germs12314 жыл бұрын

    cool video

  • @dewimaggee8195
    @dewimaggee81956 жыл бұрын

    Those were the days back when you had to down a tree for a bit of toilet paper in the morning, kids these days need instructions to bloody.......

  • @grandslam1998
    @grandslam199813 жыл бұрын

    the pit was a death hole. the price of coal was too high.