Treasure trove of 1930s NFU Mutual films found in York attic (From York Press)
Treasure trove of 1930s NFU Mutual films found in York attic
9:20am Wednesday 29th September 2010
- Share
- Comments(3)
A TREASURE trove of old films that lay hidden in a York attic for most of a century are to be seen again.
The series of documentaries and dramas set in the British countryside of the 1930s were believed lost for ever when the rural insurer NFU Mutual’s film archive deteriorated beyond repair.
But then renovators clearing out an attic in a York house unexpectedly found a dozen or more films made by the company’s film unit in the years running up to the Second World War.
Now they have been cleaned and made ready for viewing again by the North West Film Archive.
“It was not where we expected to find them, but there they were,” said a spokesman for the company.
The company believes the house used to belong to a member of its staff who sold it and left the films behind. The films have probably been in the attic since the war forced the film unit to disband.
The documentaries and dramas, made to encourage people to buy the company’s products, give a vivid insight into every day life in the British countryside in the 1930s.
NFU Mutual, which has had an office in York since 1926 and has its national horse insurance claims centre in the city, is to show the films as part of the company’s centenary celebrations which culminate in the anniversary of its founding later this week. When the film unit screened some of its work in Orkney in the 1930s, all but one of the island’s 615 residents turned out to see them – the exception being a bedridden elderly woman.
Among the documentaries is a visit by the company’s general manager to its York office together with a tour of the city including Shambles and York Minster, and a ten-minute report on the 1935 Royal Show.
- Share
- Comments(3)
More News stories
<a href="http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/8420220.Spotlight_falls_on_treasure_trove_of_old_NFU_Mutual_films/tag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/8420220.Spotlight_falls_on_treasure_trove_of_old_NFU_Mutual_films/Wed, 29 Sep 2010 08:27:01 GMT 00:00″>Treasure trove of 1930s NFU Mutual films found in York attic (From York Press)
Tags: documentaries, elderly woman, national horse
Leave a Reply