Springtime in an English Village (1944)

Unseen for years due to the fragility of the materials, 'Springtime in an English Village' offers an extraordinary and unexpected snapshot of rural life in wartime. After a fairly predictable opening - farmers ploughing fields, cute baby animals gambolling - it finally gets down to business. The film is about that most ancient of English traditions: the selection and crowning of the Queen of the May. But what is so surprising is that 60 years ago the village of Stanion in Northamptonshire chose to honour a young black girl - apparently the daughter of an African merchant seaman who had been evacuated there during the War.

It's hard to know quite how literally to take the proceedings. The film was made by the Colonial Film Unit for the purpose of screening throughout Britain's African and Caribbean colonies - to demonstrate 'typical' life in the UK - at a time when the government needed to recruit the support of men and women from across the Empire. Later, in the immediate post-War period, such films not only acted to reinforce imperial solidarity, but formed part of a propaganda campaign to attract cheap labour to the UK. (Robin Baker, with thanks to Tom Rice for additional research)

You can watch 1700 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheques:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/bfi-mediatheque

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• may
• day
• black
• british
• rural
• agriculture
• stanion
• northamptonshire
• african
• africa
• school
• children
• animals
• May
• Queen
• Ministry
• of
• Information
• MoI
• colonial
• film
• unit
• WWII
• war
• home
• front
• evacuee

[MsJoy15]

@kingbleah only an utter moron would think of that

[MsJoy15]

the village is Stanion in Northants,population in 1944 was 300 people, now 1000, but still confined to a small village , no shops now, used to be 5 and 2 pubs still going ..church , chapel & village hall , a very well run primary school,also a pre-school ,several clubs, so pretty much everything we need .l was born here,and l love living here

[Qthesame]

Beautiful

[GoldBloded]

@kipps2 It seems like a bygone age my friend, To me it is not that long ago but too many people today it seems an eternity, and looking at modern society its not hard to see why.

[Fozzly]

This video is a social construction of nature with a direct political purpose with both intended and unintended effects. It was not shown in this country, but was made for external use to attract immigrants to the UK to help with the war recovery effort.

[scurrie42]

Look at how happy and well behaved those children are without X-boxes, 'reality' TV, blackberries and entitlement to disrepect the adults that guide them. What a beautiful window into the simple life of a bygone era, when children were allowed to have a childhood.

[jimbowie09]

It's now a 67 year old film archive. Very interesting. The woman who placed the garland in the girl's hair looked a lot like young Princess Elizabeth II .

[ingy750]

@MsJoy15 Great movie, I've viewed it at National Film Theatre a few times Where were your memories published? I heard there wa something in the Telegraph. was this recently? I would love to read them

[PunkntheGodfather]

@Tinderlight I think this was a simple joke as regards modern day PC Tinderlight, a simple comment. It has nothing to do with the war. What has this got to do with when or how long black people have been in the UK, you could argue forever as our ancestors walked over from what is now Africa before the Fleuve Manche. I dont see any embarressment in making a simple joke, I think you have misunderstood

[PunkntheGodfather]

@Kazinthegarden lol, well tokenism was an 80s 90s thing I guess

[Kazinthegarden]

@Tinderlight I might misspell a bit dear as I lost fingers, dont you listen. I think it is you that has made a very big fool of herself. You completely missed a simple joke and showed yourself for the stupid judgemental idiot you are

[Tinderlight]

@Kazinthegarden Silly Person - Grow-up!! ... by the way, your spelling is AWFUL! My 6 year old niece puts points across better than you. Education is what you need.