Watch 'Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor', 1910

Around 20 of the 'Tilly' series of comedy films were made by Cecil Hepworth between 1910 and 1915, starring Tilly (Chrissie White) and Sally (Alma Taylor), who went on to become film stars in the 1920's. The first episode shows Tilly and Sally being sent to look after a poor old woman, but instead abuse her, then cause a man with a ladder and a man carrying what look like barrels to knock each other over, then steal a motor laundry van (it looks like a Maudslay) and then create havoc in a bakehouse with an ever growing crowd of people chasing them. Tilly and Sally then go back to the old woman's house and look after her - when the angry crowd catch up with them, they pretend they've been there all along, and finally appear to look after the woman

Watch 'Making Christmas Crackers', 1910

This suitable festive film from 1910 shows Christmas Crackers being made

Watch '"Round Britain" Air Race', 1911

 Film footage and photographs of the 1911 'Round Britain' Air Race, from 22nd July - 25th July. The race was one of the inspirations for the superb 1960's film 'Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines', one of the best Edwardian era films. This was uploaded to YouTube by Bomberguy

Watch the construction of the SS Olympic, 1910

This brief clip from 1910 shows the construction of the SS 'Olympic', sister ship of the SS 'Titanic'

Watch 'St Kilda, It's People and Birds', 1908

 An extract of a 1908 film showing nature on St Kilda - uploaded to Youtube by the British Film Institute

Watch Suffragette Trafalgar Square Riot, 1913

This news clip from 1913 shows a procession of Suffragettes in London's Trafalgar Square which apparently led to a riot in Whitehall, resulting in Miss Sylvia Pankhurst being led away by Police

Watch 'How Percy Won The Beauty Competition', 1909

A comedy film, in which a man named Percy decides to dress up as a woman to try and win a beauty competition - and he isn't the only man to have this idea!

Watch 'Undressing Extraordinary', 1901

Another fantastic film from the British Film Institute's Archives, showing one man's efforts to get undressed and go to sleep. This film is another of my favourite, with superb camera trickery and special effects

Watch 'The Smallest Car in the Largest City in the World', 1913

This amusing short film shows 'the baby Cadillac ordered by Queen Alexandra for Crown Prince Olaf of Norway' driving around London

Watch The Earliest Dickens Film - The Death of Poor Joe, 1901

Courtesy of the BFI who have uploaded this to Youtube, this is the earliest Dickens film surviving, 'The Death of Poor Joe' from 1901

Labels

Giving something a go to try and make it easier to find posts on specific subjects - fairly self explanatory, I try to not to make it too specific, broad enough to cover all items on the subject - for example 'Electric Railways' will also cover the infrastructure, electric passenger stock as well as the locomotives, Trams will cover horse-drawn and electric Trams etc etc. Click the links below and give it a go!

'The Airship Destroyer', 1909

From 1909, this film, entitled 'Airship Destroyer' (also known as 'Battle of The Clouds' or 'The Aerial Torpedo'), was directed by Walter R Booth, a British film pioneer from the early 20th Century. The film shows an Airship attack on England, and the attempts to destroy it by at first a fighter aircraft, and then an 'aerial torpedo', or unmanned aircraft. The film is no doubt inspired by HG Wells 'War in the Air' of 1907, and as well as forecasting the Zeppelin raids on the UK in the First World War, also shows unmanned aircraft, a development which wouldn't become widely used until nearly 100 years later. Interestingly, during the First World War, a British inventor named Archibald Low made a prototype aerial torpedo very similar to that used in 'The Airship Destroyer', which was also be guided by radio waves. Despite many experiments, and a lot of interest from the Royal Flying Corps, the Aerial Target was unsuccessful. A very interesting article regarding it appeared in the latest Cross and Cockade International journal - http://www.crossandcockade.com/index.asp

For more information on 'The Airship Destroyer', please visit this superb blog post on the Airminded blog -http://airminded.org/2007/03/22/the-airship-destroyer/

Watch 'An Otter Study', 1912

 A fascinating film using a special underwater filming tank, showing the habits of the British Otter, a population which went into serious decline through the 20th century but thankfully is now gaining again in numbers

Watch 'Flying at Pwllheli', 1911

This newsreel clip uploaded by the British Film Institute shows British aviator HJD Astley crash on take-off in his Bleriot XI Monoplane from Pwllheli, Wales. In 1912 at an airshow in Belfast on September 22, his aircraft plummeted 100 feet to the ground, and Astley died from head injuries.

Watch 'The Acrobatic Fly', 1910

Pretty self-explanatory title - an acrobatic fly, propped up on the end of a match stick, filmed in 1910

Watch "Women Farm Workers", 1916

 1916 film of WW1 'Land Girls', the Women's National Land Service Corps who worked on farms around Britain during the First World War to make up for the lack of men who had gone off to join the armed forces. These women from non-farming backgrounds had to learn and adapt to this new lifestyle, and with more and more horses needed for the war effort were also the drivers and users of new machinery such as tractors which were coming into use more and more during the First World War

Watch 'A Day in the Hayfields' - 1904

A great portrait of a hot summers day in rural England in 1904 - hay being cut and collected, children playing in the hay, and then the hay being transported and stored at the farm. This was made by Cecil Hepworth, better known for his 'Rescued by Rover' (1905) which was the first international blockbuster, 'The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper' (1908), which is it's sequel, and the first ever film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's book 'Alice in Wonderland' (1903)

Watch 'Alice in Wonderland', 1903

Restored in 2010 by the British Film Institute, who have very kindly uploaded it to youtube, this is the first ever film adaptation of 'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll, restored from heavily damaged surviving material. It originally ran to twelve minutes, but only eight have survived, and this 1903 version by Cecil Hepworth of the famous story can be seen below

Watch 'The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper', 1908

Thanks to the British Film Institute, a sizeable number of early films are available to watch for free on youtube - this is one of them, 'The Dog Outwits the Kidnapper', released in 1908 and following on the heels of international blockbuster 'Rescued by Rover' of 1905, made by Cecil Hepworth and featuring the Hepworth family dog Blair rescuing a baby from an evil woman. It was so succesful two remakes had to be made as the original films wore out. This is a sequel to 'Rescued by Rover', with Blair again taking up the role of the hero

Watch 'Drat That Boy', 1904

An RW Paul from 1904 about an annoying child