Added: 3 years ago
From: BFIfilms
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  • its interesting this video.. everyone used to stare at the camera.. but on other videos of 1901 like usa  people didnt much care stood there staring at a camera men... but this video looks like as if no one have seen a camera before.... I gues usa was more advance then what uk was at the time ? Is this available on dvd? whats the name of it so i can look it up.

  • @VOXS2 not really... everyone back then that you'd see at a seaside usually were on holiday...so to be on holiday and someone pop up with a camera (no matter what country you lived in back then cameras that could record film were rare) obviously they are going to look, see any other video in say the streets of london no one looks at the camera cause they're getting on with there day.

  • @Ramzzy666 Sure. but that doesnt mean the city is busy and people looked at the camera less then this one on the sea side.. living back then in a busy city doesnt mean they allready had cameras in store... it was still kind of new stuff like never seen before or at least something strange back then... So thats why i was wondering why the city peopled just moved on and careless about a guy with a strange technology camera back then in 1901. Maybe they had ofther better technology in thier minds

  • the womans voice reminds me of most haunted haha

  • Very poignant to think that some of the young lads running along the promenade probably ended up face-down in French mud.

  • Love this film. There's so much to look at. The man missing a leg (2:02), the other one playing with is umbrella, the kids running, people on the beach.. And then the jump cut where suddenly the people have stopped moving and here they are, looking directly at you... This is amazing.

  • Back when the term 'ladies and gentlemen' rang true.

  • Interesting views of pre-Islamic Britain. 

  • It's a haunting look back into a byegone era. But what I find most surprising is how well-dressed all the people in this film are.

  • Fantastic find. What must it have been like to live in those times? Note also, the lack of fat (sorry) obese people

  • You have to love the guy spinning his brolly at 1:18. 

  • When ever I watch these very old films I cannot help but think that all these ppl are now deceased and but shadows of themselves caught on film. What would they think if they only knew that we would be watching them on a thing called the Internet over 100 years later into their future. As mentioned earlier, "this is as near as we get to time travel right now".

  • also, check on google eart, little different today...

  • cannot imagine how different their lives were. LOVE this.

  • Just so amazing, so detailed, this is as near as we get to time travel right now.

  • Is there anyone familiar with this location today? Does it still look the same? Is that huge building in the background in the first minute still there?

  • @JarheadPatriot0311 Marine Road West is more or less the same. West End Pier was washed away in a storm in 1977. The Stone Jetty is still there. At this time it was a ship breaking yard operated by Thomas W Ward of Sheffield. At 1:42 the old Midland Hotel comes into view. This was replaced by the more famous (recently restored) Art Deco building in the '30's. Morecambe suffered very badly in the recessions of the 80's and 90's and is very run-down now. I lived there from 1966-1986.

  • @enochsneed Wow! Thank you for the info. I wish I could visit that area.

  • wow did anyone notice the poor man with one leg at 2:01? 

  • its amazing how times have changed just a shame they cant get morecambe back how it was

  • My other question is... why in todays lifes when see a brand new film at the cinema they allways beging with the 20th century logo on each film? isnt the 20th century actually 1900s ? course i remember seen movies in 1990s with the same 20th century...... dont think i would ever seen one logo with 19th century...... i thought todays would be 21st century. Im so confuse about that really.

  • @MrProvoski I'm under the impression that it is 21st century fox now (if thats what your referring to)at least thats what I remember but my mind may be playing tricks on me

  • @MrProvoski 20th Century Fox is just the name of a company. Yes we are now in the 21st century but there's don't need to change the name of a registered company just because the year changed.

  • i wish i new the name of the street.. and location has anyone nows?

    Would be good to know.. course i want to google map this... but what city or town and country....

    let me know hre

  • @MrProvoski  morcambe , england

  • My other guestion is... how do i actually buy this on dvd? and is there just more then this on dvd ? copys would be nice but good quality remasted perhaps? im not in the UK so not sure how that will pretty much work. But yeah i also notice that young chap lad with a long golden trumpet.. what was he actually doing ? that i dont understand. I see a baker men there in white he sure to make nice bread in 1901 :)

  • Why do they all wear hats? all the videos ive seen wearing hats.

    Look ive seen a short grafitti on that fence (wetpaint) these that was grafitti of the time. Nice billboard wooden structor there on the background.. its like todays in some locations.. they built billboard notice boards made of wooden like the same as 1901. gues that hasnt change one but. And i wonder if that long side fence still looks the same. I lov to go there seat the same spot as that guy was seating on..and look around

  • Sure doesnt look like water from the background of these people.. looks like its a very low tide.... Has anyone still knows exactly where this road or street was ? i want to google map the very same spot as this was filmed i want to see the whole view the everything to see if some stuff remains the same.. and also want to know if its still low tide just like that.. the background factory looks interesting. these kids looks like petter pan dressing up. Gues its school uniform ? or runawaylads

  • Well thats right they look at the camera because they had the allways stare at others... its like in india today why when a camera men is filming the whole town everyone gathers up and stares just like as if non of them has ever seen a camera men film before ? know thats so strange dont u think? its like 1901. that sea from the distance.. is that water or just sand that the water is in low ocean at the moment at the time of this film ? looks like the low tide it seems... very low tide

  • are these kids all wearing school uniforms or what? it seems they all seem to wear the same clothes.. unless it is the only one thing fashion was... like different types of clothes would be nice perhaps? but very neat they wear.

  • I also wonder as you can see this footage.. look carefully at the long tall lights stoods on the side edge of the road... I wonder how old are these lights... must be clean and new.. U might see some of these around in london but not working but the while thing may look very old and dirty and not clean the frame of the light stoods

  • If this video is 1901 or 1903 doesnt matter... but look at the older people staring at the camera... these very older people where born around the early 1800s at the time they film this.. these older people would prob have been dead by the year 1930s

  • That one legged man is really powering along. Kudos to him.

  • It looks like they're having a nice day out on the beach just like you or I would, only in another era, but what makes it haunting is that everyone shown in this picture is 6ft under by now

  • i love this video my dad was born here and i live in lancaster so i come here most the time though i rather would live in morecambe when this was shot than now.i

  • i love this video my dad was born here and i live in lancaster so i come here most the time though i rather would live in morecambe when this was shot than now.

  • these old street short films are so awesome

  • Morecombe looks very similar today. It's a beautiful peek into a world long gone, maybe even seem nostalgic for a memory none of us living really have. We forget 16hr working days, the dirt and the grim of the mills, poverty, abuse, neglect. Let's leave that pretty scene where it is. An ancient memory. Life with all it's complications is much better now

  • @amisja I agree, you hear people going about the wonderful British empire, The land and factory owners treated the Brish worker and their children with almost equal contempt it treated people abroad. it was a wonderful time if you had servants to skivvy around for you for minimum wages, otherwise normal people struggled to survive in a time of fabulous wealth owned by the few.

  • Mesmerising film. Can anyone clarify the date, 1901 or 1903?

  • @rebecks1974 - It's 1901. The comment about 1903 is entirely spurious. More information at: ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/71­7201

  • Just looking at these people. I wonder how they would react to a load of mosques, anglican lesbian bishops etc.. This film reminds us of who the BRITISH were.

  • WOW!!! The quality of this is staggering!

    I felt like I took a time machine back in time.

    And the 2 boys -they were the stars!!!!! :)

  • You people need to shut up! these are my relatives and they are dead and you show no respect! SO JUST SHUT UP!

  • The Mitchell & Kenyon films especially give me a tummy tingling sense of poignancy for times long before I was born. The people must all now be long gone and I am especially moved by the young boys, who, in many cases would have been some of the young men sent to war in 1914. All those people knew nothing of the times to come, the Wars, the technological changes etc. They all seem familiar yet its a whole other era. Thanks for the films. I love them.

  • It's like taking a trip in H.G. Wells' Time Machine.

  • Check out the dude with the trumpet at 2:25 lol. Good clip!

  • "the past is a different country- they do things differently there". Amazing the difference if you hit the HD button. This is a beautiful clip.

  • @incongra sorry meant HQ button

  • @incongra It was the real UK, Real British people, CULTURE.

    Nice Video.

  • I just hit the HQ button and it was so much better. Wow, what a difference.

  • haunting

  • 'Loved the children running: energy to last them a lifetime... just like any child should have.... Wonderful images.

  • Good posts MaryOMackie

  • Awesomeee

  • Look at those beautiful people. So full of life. Oh God, I love them all. Look at their faces! I can't remember ever being so moved by a piece of film. Thank you for generously sharing so much of this supremely important DVD collection.

  • Wonderful,

    Peace*

  • wow, i love this vid except that kid running along started bugging me there toward the end

  • Good thing all this blight was destroyed during WWII otherwise society would never move forward. The good thing about technology was the 'color bomb' that was set off in the late 1930's; the most famous example of that event was the filming of the "Wizard of Oz" black&white during the first part of filming then color as color was newly discovered and enjoyed by all. The color bomb was credited to the end of the great depression as it lifted spirits. "Great depression" wasn't that Great at all.

  • I love the old man of the 19th century @ 2:18. There are just so many beautiful characters in this film. I don't know who I love more, the ladies with the babies in the prams, the children, the man twirling the umbrella taking a stroll with his love. This is such short footage but so rich in turn of the century society and English culture.

  • This is priceless, i drive down this road a lot.

  • Thats just a great movie. I know the town quite well and used take my son their as child. Strange to think you are looking at "dead" people as its now 2009!

    Wheels keep turning and we are living in primative fashion as people will think 100 years from now!

  • In my humble opinion, we are the primitive ones now and they were the civilized then.

  • @MaryOMackie You are right. We may have the better technology, and we may act superior to them because of our whiz-bang gadgetry. But they would point out to us our Auschwitz's, our nukes, our totalitarian governments. And they would ask us, with justification, "are you really better than us?"

  • Great film. Its strange to see these people walking along where i walk nearly everyday

  • Hmm, i live about 2 minutes away from where this was filmed.

  • Love this film, especially the little boys running along after the camera and the man swinging his umbrella from 1:12. I wonder how they would respond to a modern day car driving past with a camera!

  • Wait just a minute....  The narrator says that this film was taken in July 1903, but then she says that the women were wearing black to mourn the death of Queen Victoria, who died in January 1901.

    Even if this film was actually shot in 1901, would the women still be in mourning dress six months after the queen's death? I doubt it.

  • marvy1118, you're right. The title says, 1901, but the narrator says it's 1903.

  • funny how they are posing like its a camera.

  • I wish I could go back there and live then. This day in age sucks.

  • Life was much tougher in those days - most people worked hard manual jobs and had no indoor plumbing. Unless you were idle rich of course...

  • Until you had to go to the dentist, or until the hot months arrived. No AC. No tank tops or shorts allowed. No sandals.

    It looks idyllic, but the reality was far less.

  • Yes, and there were so few social freedoms. No public displays of affection or talk about sex was allowed. In fact, nobody was taught about sex. Women were treated with less equality than today. And forget about same-sex relations. You'd be put in jail if you were caught.

  • frow9405. I'd rather be one of those women strolling the baby in the pram then than living here today in the age I was born.

    I'd gladly take those cloths over what I wear today and I'd take sex as a taboo subject over the cheap smut shoved down our throats on a 24/7 basis.

    Even though times may have been tougher in some ways, they were better too. It was a wonderful time to be in England at that time, very alive and exciting, I would switch places in a heart beat.

  • @MaryOMackie. I too like your comments.

    Beautiful film, but makes me sad that those days are long gone and there is no going back.

  • @MaryOMackie Bless your heart, MaryOMackie, your are so right about the times, and how even though things are better in some ways now days, we have lost something very important, and the folks in these films would be shocked in many ways if they knew what the future holds.

  • Though I do see a baby girl walking cross at 1:35.

    She looks to be about 2 or 3.

    If she were born in 1899, she would be about 110 or 111, conservatively.

  • Oh, I see, you must be talking about the babies in the prams. If they were born that same year, 1901,

    those babies would be around 108.

  • These children were obviously born in the years dating from the late 1880's to the early 1890's.

    People, do the math. How old would even the youngest child seen here be right now? The youngest child looks to be around 5 or 6, which would mean he was born in 1895 or 1896.

    It is now the year of 2009.

    I have never known of people living to 115.

  • This film made me sad more than anything... how many of those happy go lucky kids would've become cannon fodder in W.W.II, dying in agony and going insane through the horror of industrialized warfare? When we're kids we don't know just how short our innocence will be, and once it's gone it's gone it's gone forever.

  • More like cannon fodder in WWI.

  • Glad I don't have to put on my three-piece suit to go to the beach in the Summer anymore.

  • Because the quality of the English videos, is very upper to the

    Americans of the same time...

    1900~~ from Brasil

  • Thomas Edison was and still remains an IMPOSTOR (ask Tesla about)

  • Lovely!

    Really enjoyed your film.

    Another world, another time--wonderful.

  • i wonder how many of them kids died in the great war?

  • The man from 1:12 to 1:20 with the umbrella is, quite frankly, the epitome of cool.

  • or bourgeosie decadence, lol.

  • I love these films but I also find them sad... To see the children running along the seafront on a summers day in Morecambe with their whole lives ahead of them. They must be all long dead by now. I wonder if anyone will be looking at films of us in 100 years and thinking the same....

  • Spot on mate. It's quite harrowing when you see people in this film looking at the camera, looking back at them knowing they are long gone.

  • This an excellent piece of footage of my own town, I've never seen footage like it. Great to see the prom pre Midland Hotel, the old west end pier and all the flower gradens from the Battery. Cheers, thanks for sharing this past shadow of a lifetime long ago.

  • Imagine, 100 years.. what is now.. is not all that great.. but people do live longer..we have to find simpler ways to live well, and not make everything for disposal. I loved this film, Mom once 'stole a Model A(or T), flipped it over, and pulled it back up, and brought it back.. A joy ride back then, prison now. Thanks again for sharing this 'dream' we get to see, no actors..

  • Lovely film!

    The people live again in this footage and it's wonderful to see.

    Thanks so much!

  • creepy to think that all of these people are no longer here!! even the young kids?? great footage indeed!

  • The young kids COULD be still around...but they'd be at least 107 years old... Yikes!!

    Another interesting and informative film by the way. ;)

  • How would the young kids be 107? If they were under 10 in 1901, how old would they be now?

    These kids were born in the 1880-90's, they weren't born in 1901.

    They would be older than 110!

  • Blues singer John Lee Hooker had been described as a window into the past, and so he was. In another more obvious way these absolutely fascinating films are priceless, and is a glimpse into an England of the past. Love it...

  • Excellent video clips!

  • Its like looking into the past and the past welcoming you in to a world all but forgotten.

  • Ref. the first frames - I found this when making my 8 mm family films in the early sixties - older people were used to being photographed by a still camera and tended to stand still - one had to explain that it was a 'movie',

  • Another great video and it strikes me that it looks so modern for such an early film.

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