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
Here and There in a Coronation Year
A patriotic tour of the coast in celebration of the new monarch.
In partnership with:
Overview
1937 was a year of celebration. Bunting and street parties were held to mark the crowning of the new monarch, George VI. This amateur film follows a family on picnics and a tour of the coast of North Devon at Woolacombe and Clovelly and on a trip around Cornwall to Carbis Bay, St Ives, Sennen Cove, Mullion Cove, Newlyn, Mousehole, St Michael's Mount during the Whitsun holidays. Flags, crockery, tea, this film exudes quintessential Britishness right down to its jelly moulds.
The coronation of George VI took place on 12 May 1937 although he became King the day after the abdication of his brother Edward VIII on 11 December 1936. A joyous occasion for the nation and a public holiday, the coronation was broadcast on radio with the state procession shown live on television and filmed extracts shown in cinemas. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression threatened the world economy, Britain was governed by a coalition government of all the major parties from 1931 to 1940 known as National Government and Neville Chamberlain was about to become its new Prime Minister.
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