At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
This film is part of Free
Adderwell Armaments Factory in Frome
It's all work and plenty of play at the Adderwell Armaments Factory in Frome - featuring various weapons, choirs, comedians, boxing, Tessie O'Shea and a visit from Queen Mary.
From the collection of:
Overview
This film shows work and play at the Aderwell Armaments Factory in Frome, Somerset. We begin with men inspecting and loading guns for shipment before switching to a factory canteen where a lunch-time concert is being broadcast by the BBC. Boxing scenes are followed by a visit by Queen Mary who meets with women workers. While RAF trucks are loaded another concert gets underway with Tessie O'Shea playing banjo and Jack Ballantyne on concertina. More boxing follows.
William J Evans owned an engineering business, J Evans & Son (Portsmouth) Ltd, which relocated to the Adderwell Works in Frome, Somerset, along with many of the workforce, after Portsmouth was blitzed in 1940-41. During this intensely busy period, he still found time to film some of the activities at the factory such as a ‘Works Wonders’ concert, boxing matches and a visit by HRH Queen Mary, who insisted on being filmed meeting the factory’s women workers. 'Works Wonders', a forerunner to Worker’s Playtime, took to the air in November 1940 and was broadcast lunch-time concerts staged in factory canteens across the country. It often featured amateur performers drawn from the factory’s own workforce.
Related
Watch for free
Yesterday Is over Your Shoulder Yesterday Is over Your Shoulder
Industry sponsored film 1940 8 mins
An enticing government call for men to retrain as skilled engineers to help with the war effort.
Watch for free
Warwork News No 11 Warwork News No 11
Government sponsored film 1942 12 mins
Wartime news magazine for factory workers, sponsored by the Ministry of Supply. News items often stressed the value of the 'factory front'.
Watch for free
Worker and War Front No. 3 Worker and War Front No. 3
Government sponsored film 1942 11 mins Location: Liverpool
A wartime magazine made to motivate and inform war workers, commissioned by the Ministry of Information in 1942 and exclusively screened in factories.
Watch for free
Behind the Guns Behind the Guns
Documentary 1940 20 mins Silent
A Second World War propaganda film, looking at the industrial might behind Great Britain’s armed forces.
Watch for free
Shipbuilders Shipbuilders
Government sponsored film 1940 10 mins
Shipwrights, plate-fitters and riveters support the war effort as their ships take majestic shape in this tour of British shipyards.
Watch for free
The Port of Cardiff 2 The Port of Cardiff 2
Promotional 1943 25 mins Silent Location: Whitchurch
Meat and wheat, oranges and eggs (dried), salmon and peaches (tinned) arrive in Cardiff from Brazil, America, Canada and New Zealand to keep war-time’s wolf from the allied door.
Watch for free
Cinema Commercial for Jewellers Cinema Commercial for Jewellers
Advert 1920 0 mins Silent Location: Frome
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that bling… early silent cinema advert for a local business in Frome.
Watch for free
Prince's Tour in the West Prince's Tour in the West
Non-Fiction 1923 1 mins Location: Frome
The Prince of Wales visits Bath and Frome in this 1923 newsreel for local cinemas
Watch for free
The Buckley Family - Somerleaze (Frome) and Castell Gorfod (Llangynin) The Buckley Family - Somerleaze (Frome) and Castell Gorfod (Llangynin)
Home movie 1931 12 mins Silent Location: Frome
The Buckley's Brewery (Llanelli) family gets about, visiting relatives in Somerset and cutting hay – and hair – at home in Carmarthenshire.
Watch for free
Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande - Q&A Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande - Q&A
Inside Film 2024 22 mins
The director of a documentary about British funk pioneers Cymande joins the band at BFI Southbank to talk about the film.
Watch for free
The West Case The West Case
Action and Adventure 1923 28 mins Silent Location: Tilbury
Plotting world domination, Devil Doctor Fu-Manchu steals plans for a new aero-torpedo in this earliest surviving thrill-a-minute serial instalment.
Watch for free
Enter the Scala!!! Enter the Scala!!!
Inside Film 2024 16 mins
Filmmakers Jane Giles and Ali Catterall discuss their documentary Scala!!!, revisiting the legendary and inspirational cinema venue and some of the most notorious films that screened there.
Watch for free
Smith Smith
Charity appeal 1939 10 mins
Long thought lost, this Powell-directed promotional short for a veteran’s charity was only rediscovered in 2003.
Watch for free
An Airman's Letter to His Mother An Airman's Letter to His Mother
Documentary 1941 6 mins
A poignant, stirring letter from a recently deceased pilot to his mother is read by John Gielgud.
Watch for free
The NHS75 Celebration The NHS75 Celebration
Short documentary 2023 3 mins
Former Bristol Poet Laureate, Miles Chambers reads a poem specially commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the NHS.