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A fascinating record of the way Middlewich celebrated the Coronation of King George VI in 1937.
To celebrate the Queen's Jubilee in June 2012, we've restored the film's titles and set it to music, at the same time dedicating it to The People of Middlewich, Past, Present ...and Future.
Update
2nd June 2022.
Ten years on, as H M Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee, we thought it appropriate to re-publish this Diary entry.
We're leaving Middlewich behind for a little while as we take a circular tour around the old County of Cheshire as it was just before the Second World War (although we do end up just a short distance down the road at Bostock Hall).
Clifford Ridgway took his 16mm camera, loaded with some early colour film and recorded the sights of the pre-war county for posterity, taking in Sandbach, Barthomley, Moreton Old Hall, Marton, Gawsworth, Warburton, Lymm, Arley Hall (near Northwich), Chester & the River Dee, Eaton Hall, Shocklach, Peckforton Castle, Beeston Castle, Horsley's Well*, Bunbury, Eaton, Rushton, Cotebrook, Great Budworth and Bostock Hall (near Middlewich).
Sadly old colour film does not seem to stand the test of time as its more stable black and white equivalent does and the colour is somewhat faded, but this film is beautiful nonetheless.
It's worthwhile remembering too, that Cheshire today is just as beautiful .
One day, when time allows, we plan to remake this film in HD to prove the point.
*a word about 'Horsley's Well'. The caption included in this film is the only mention we've ever seen of 'Horsley's Well'.
As can be seen in the film, it appeared to be quite a well-known tourist spot situated close to Beeston Castle, but very little is known about it in the present day.
The closest we can get using an internet search is a mention of 'Horsley Bath' which is in the grounds of a private house at Beeston and is reputed to have its origin in Roman Times.
It is 'fed by its own underground spring', so must be the same place as there are shots of water flowing into the 'well' in the film.
Recent pictures show it looking more like an ordinary garden fish pond than anything else.
Accounts suggest that it was a tourist attraction 'up until around 1904' but our film seems to suggest that people were visiting it long after that date.
As always, we welcome any information on this.
We recommend that you watch the film on Youtube by clicking on the link below.
by Dave Roberts, 'Double Strength' is a short comedy film made by the Mid-Cheshire Amateur Cinematography Society (MCACS) in the late 1930s. It's really more of an exercise in trick photography than anything else, and most of the camera tricks available to the amateur 16mm film maker at that time are employed. There is a lot of 'stop motion' - stopping the camera and either putting something into the frame, or taking something out, and then resuming filming giving the effect of something appearing or disappearing out of or into thin air. But the 'double' effect used towards the end of the film, when Arthur's miraculous powers turn Evelyn into two people, is the ultimate in film trickery at that time. To produce the effect meant exposing just half of the 16mm film with a blanking plate over the other half and then rewinding the film, blanking off the already exposed half, and then filming again. By today's standards, the result was, perhaps, indifferent, but the true wonder is not that it was done slightly badly, but that it was possible to do it at all. The film features Arthur Roberts and his two sisters - Winnie (later Winifred Oakes), who plays his wife and Evelyn, later Evelyn Ridgway, who was, until the end of the 1960s, the proprietor of the newsagents shop in Wheelock Street most recently known as 'Chisholm's'. Evelyn plays 'a friend' making a memorable appearance (or should that be two appearances?) towards the end of the film.. Arthur plays the part of a man plagued by indigestion who is always looking for the ultimate cure, as is his wife, who tries all kinds of medicines to try to solve the problem. The 'Double Strength' tablets which eventually fall onto the doormat and which Winnie slips into Arthur's drink prove to be not quite as advertised. Then again could the whole thing be just a dream? Probably - it's one of the oldest ideas in the history of film making and used to very good effect in this little masterpiece. We originally thought that the house and garden used as locations for this film were in Westlands Road in Middlewich, but following subsequent investigations we now believe the location was 'The Nook' at the bottom end of Nantwich Road, a house owned in the 1930s and 1940s by Mr and Mrs W. G Oakes, my Uncle Bill and the aforementioned Auntie Winnie, who were both keen members of the cine society. Note that when Arthur is relaxing in the sunny summer Middlewich garden, the newspaper he is reading carries stories full of the ominous doings of Hitler and Mussolini. The storm clouds of war were gathering, but it all must have seemed millions of miles away from that secluded Middlewich garden. We looked long and hard for some music to accompany this film and eventually struck gold with a website in New Zealand which specialises in transforming vintage player-piano (Pianola) rolls into Midi files. We're very grateful to Robert for allowing us to use some of the music he has so painstakingly preserved to accompany this and other films in the series. We hope you'll agree that, as we've said on our YouTube Channel, the music fits the film 'like a glove'. The selections used are 'Slipova' by Roy Bargy and 'Maple Leaf Rag' and 'Palm Leaf Rag' by Scott Joplin We recommend watching 'Double Strength' on YouTube by clicking the link below. WATCH 'DOUBLE STRENGTH' ON YOUTUBE PIANOLA.CO.NZ WEBSITE 'Double Strength' and the other films in the Roberts Collection are now in the care of the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University.
