Cockington, Devon (1924)

Daytrippers from Torquay arrive by charabanc to visit the picturesque village of Cockington. Charabancs were large military vehicles converted for public use after World War I.

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)

For more information about 'The Open Road' see http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/openroad/

To buy the DVD click here - http://www.bfi.org.uk/filmstore

You can watch the whole of 'The Open Road' and 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• BFI
• 1920s
• Cockington
• Devon
• beauty
• spot
• cottages
• charabanc
• cows
• nature
• travelogue

[fenackerpan]

The old forge on the left...

[danshanhan]

my mum lives in Cockington and it has'nt changed at all from when this video was took!!!

[theworldvideos1]

I think I remembered some years ago, the BBC did a car journey on a 1920's car from Lands End to John O Groats based on Claude Green's "The Open Road". Those 2 ladies who were walking in the film, one of them was the mother of a woman who still lives there. That was on the BBC documentary. They also showed clips from The Open road on the documentary.

[tomthumbtoo]

these are computer colorized or what?

[AndrewKFletcher]

Brilliant. Was walking through Cockington today, nothing has changed much.

[robpatton1990]

What a pleasent video.

[emanfirstlast]

my god, i have seen the same comment on all of these videos, read the description, it was digitally re-mastered by the BFI

[twoslices]

They had colour in 1924??