This rare colour footage from the British Film Institute archive shows life on the River Thames in the 1930s. Its[…]
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Category: Working Sail
The UK has a strong maritime history, with many coastal communities relying on the sea for a living. This category includes tales of boatbuilders, fishermen, traders, pilots, ships of war and rescue as well as the changing use for many vessels now used as leisure craft.
Yarmouth smacks, a royal screening, 1896
In this tiny fragment of late 19th century film footage, we see smacks leaving Great Yarmouth. Shot with one of[…]
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Last of the Bristol Channel sailing coasters
Edmund Eglinton was just 13 in 1915, when he began to sail on the trows and ketches of the Bristol[…]
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‘Out punt!’: the Bristol pilot’s call
Captain George Buck recollects two night watches, five miles southwest of the Wolf Rock, waiting for an expected ship from[…]
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From Barge to London Restaurant: SB Pretoria, 1964
This Pathé archive film tells the story of Thames Sailing barge Pretoria which became a restaurant on the Thames in[…]
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Changing times for the sailing colliers, 1727
What would travellers from the days of sail make of Harwich Harbour in the 21st century? Daniel Defoe takes to[…]
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Albion, the oldest remaining Norfolk wherry
‘Albion’ was built as a Norfolk wherry and carried cargo on the inland waterways of eastern England. Jack Powley was[…]
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The British trawler fleet: 1940 – 1949
This ‘Instructional film’ from the Pathé Archive provides a clearly-presented overview of trawling in the 1940s, as steam began to[…]
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Trawling in Scotland: 1929 – 1931
This Pathé Archive takes us back to 1929-31 with footage of trawlers and fishing boats going out of a harbour[…]
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Sailing on the Norfolk Broads: 1948
Norfolk wherry, ‘Albion’ is one of just two survivors of the 300 ‘black-sailed traders’ which once carried cargo on the[…]
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