Barrs Court Centre: 1959 and 1960

Summary

Amateur record of the 1959 Harvest Festival at Barrs Court Centre attended by the Dean of Hereford. Also includes children engaging with crafts; a schol holiday in Aberystwyth in Wales and the construction of a bonfire for Guy Fawkes night.

Year:

1959

Duration:

0:24:25

Film type:

Black & White / Silent

Genre:

Amateur Film

Master format:

16mm

Description

As part of the Harvest Festival at Barrs Court Centre four children are shown carrying flowers and bread followed by the Dean of Hereford, Hedley Robert Burrows. Children from the Centre are then seen accompanying the Dean to his car where he shakes their hands. Children then give old people baskets of food and we see the Harvest Festival display of food after which children are seen singing. This element of the film ends with children delivering baskets and boxes of food to the houses of old people in Hereford.
'Our Weather Chart' dates the next section of filming as Thursday 15th October 1959 and features children gluing pictures on to paper, making decorations, a boy is shown making a lampshade and a rug using the hooking method while another works on a raffia stool and another two paint at easels. We then see the children at lunchtime collecting a plate of food from the school's kitchen and then sitting and eating. This section is complemented by a child setting out food for the school's pet rabbits.
The next section of the film shows the children building a bonfire and setting an effigy of Guy Fawkes on it, presumably in early November 1959. We then see the bonfire being lit and the Guy is silhouetted against the flames as the fire takes a hold.
We then see children playing in the Centre's playground using a road roller as a climbing frame, running, wrestling, using the slide and sand pits as well as playing cricket.
The film ends with a record of a holiday in Aberystwyth in Wales (1960?). Children are shown on the beach eating and making their way across rock pools as well as boarding a boat for a sea trip. Finally, we see children preparing themselves before beginning a hunt for small bags (of 'treasure') in a garden.


Credits

No credits specified


Notes

Barrs Court Centre was a school for children with learning difficulties and special needs. The head teacher (Mrs Gorin) and deputy head (Mrs Deeley) filmed school trips and events. The school still exists as Barrs Court Special School.