Colchester: 900 Years Old Ceremony (1920)

Foodies, take note, appreciation of fresh, local British produce was born long before the 'Observer Food Monthly'! The first of September sees the annual official opening of Colchester's ancient oyster beds, and in this wonderful snippet of film flat caps mingle with trilbies as the people of the town gather to watch their mayor slurp up the river's new seasonal offerings. It is the animated passengers, rather than the oyster-harvesting paraphernalia, that provide most interest. Watch out for the traditional hors d'oeuvres - much more fun than champagne. (Marianne Levy)

You can watch over 1500 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the BFI Mediatheque. There are Mediatheques at BFI Southbank, London, QUAD, Derby and the new Central Library, Cambridge: http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/bfi-mediatheque http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/online/bfi_media.htm

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• BFI
• British
• Film
• Institute
• Mayor
• Colchester
• Essex
• Oyster
• Season
• River
• Ceremony
• Gin
• Gingerbread
• Shellfish
• Fruits
• de
• Mer
• Old
• Documentary
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• Fishing
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• Silent
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• Pathe

[latham29]

@alan4391 - it's a silent film! the earliest sound films weren't until the late 1920s.

[80stimeagain]

The restoration of these old films is just amazing.

[inaband]

A lovely piece of film - I imagine they are on Mersea Island or further up the Colne estuary. - I cant really see the Mayor of Colchester getting his hands dirty like they did back then though. Thanks BFI!

[inaband]

@lamalo80 - indeed there is still a Colchester oyster festival (although the oysters actually come from neighbouring Mersea)

[Ollfie]

Thats me....... 3rd from the right!!!!!

[Aguaatlantis]

lol yeah that's true

[inmywonderland07]

I'd like to imagine all of the audio on this video is all of those men saying "Right-o", "Jolly good!" and the one woman saying "Mmm yes, right." Along with other many moustache-y things.

[VirgLondon2]

Love the mayors grimace when he whollops the oyster down

[alan4391]

wheres the sound?

[MorroccoSurrogate]

I think I see a grand total of one woman on that boat.

Anyway, I need some oysters right now.

[modemeyes]

In the last shot the Mayor looked as he was going to vomit!