The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free
Beach Holiday at Sennen Cove
Holidays are close to home for the Parsons' family.
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Overview
This film is delightfully 1930s with cloche hats and shift dresses for the ladies, wide legged pleated pegs with turn ups for men, full bathing costumes for boys, girls and adults (but no Lycra). Filmed at Whitesand Bay Beach which at high tide is split into Sennen Cove Beach to the south and Gwenver or Gwynver Beach to the north. The rocks in the distance are Brisons Rocks but on a clear day it is possible to see the Isles of Scilly.
The Parsons family lived in Redhill in Surrey and owned a house at Sennen Cove. They left an impressive collection of amateur film on 16mm dating from the 1920s including film from Hillsbrow Preparatory School, a London to Eastbourne Old Crocks motorsport rally race and horseriding events. The amateur filmmaking tradition carried on down the generations to the 1970s and more family oriented home movies. They also filmed cruises to New York, Italy and Egypt in the 1930s.
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