Britain's Forgotten Winters: Rare Archival Footage from the 1960s and 70s

#nostalgia #digitisedcinefilm #winter #snow #snowandice

Britain's Forgotten Winters: Rare Archival Footage from the 1960s and 70s

This film was taken from several different 8mm Cine Film Digitised with a Kodak Reels Scanner.

This digitised cine film whisks you back to the vibrant scenes of the 1960s & 1970s! The adventure kicks off with a snowy suburban street where 2 men are battling the elements to clear their car, while another enthusiastically preps his Ford Consul convertible. The camera sweeps across charming houses & the picturesque countryside blanketed in white. Next, a mother strolls by with her 2 kids & their playful dog, gliding past the freshly cleared Ford. Then, we spot an Austin A40 nestled in a snowy driveway, followed by more scenes of men shovelling snow from their cars & kids sledging down the glistening hill.

A Ford Prefect bravely navigates a snow-covered road, while other paths are icy & treacherous. A main road remains clear, but the sidewalks are packed with snow.

We see a house adorned with several vehicles, leading us to the exciting speed skating scene at the Trent Building at the Nottingham University at Highfields Park, where crowds glide across the frosty ice. A man shovels snow from his driveway. With snow piled on the lawn, a lively snowball fight erupts! The front garden is transformed into a winter wonderland, & another icy road showcases a Ford Cortina parked proudly while a cheerful snowman stands guard on the lawn. The grand finale features 2 couples frolicking in the countryside, laughing & throwing snowballs, revelling in the joy of winter!

If anyone recognises any of the locations featured in this film please comment below.

The following timeline provided by @garethbramley1 with additional information by @harri2626

@garethbramley1
2:46 - Looks like Allendale Crescent which is in Shiremoor, Tyne & Wear.
Sadly, no buildings, etc to identify the sledging location.
Wow - 4:44 - this is the Trent Building at the Nottingham University at Highfields Park where I cycle to and film birds all the time. It's been frozen over for well over a week now so the herons, egrets & suchlike have departed. I've seen people standing on it last week but I don't think the ice would be as thick as it is here.
5:11 - skaters under the bridge in the middle of the lake.
J I am gobsmacked - never seen anything like this - must be a few inches thick. It was actually a boating lake & still is, with boats being let out from the spring until early October.
The building was opened in 1928 along with the surrounding lake, etc. Looks like it was due for a clean!
Do we know what year this was? Could it have been during the big freeze of 1963 or. maybe, that's too early for some of the cars? The colour looks to be about that time?
6:53 - University Boulevard.
@harri2626 6.57 - we see a Midland Red bus on route X99 which ran from Birmingham to Nottingham via Tamworth, Ashby de la Zouch, Castle Donnington and Beeston.
More scenes of the boulevard and that's the entrance showing the Jesse Boot statue outside - that's the guy who founded Boots the Chemist here in Nottingham. These scenes end 7:10.
9:47 - Bexton's Auto Service - possibly Buxton.
Difficult to make out the location at the end but looks like Derbyshire with the hills in the background @ 10:52 onwards

More research completed by @garethbramley1

This film has prompted me to revisit the website I saved some months ago - specifically on Highfields.
Some photos confirm that there was skating on the lake after it had iced over in 1947, 1953, 1960-1, January 1963 and 1985.
From another online article:
"The first time I wore a pair of skates was on the lake at Highfields Park, Nottingham, next to the University, sometime in the late 50s or early 60s – I believe there were 9 inches of ice covering the water that year & it cost 9d to skate, 1d per inch (that’s about 4p in ‘new’ money). There were several people on the ice. I believe this was a very popular & quite regular pastime in those days. Now we do not get the same extremes of temperature & climate."
From 'Lenton Times Magazine':
"When the ice was considered the ice thick enough the Parks Department would allow skating to take place on it.

If you look at the Trent Building @4:45 you will not see the 2 trees left & right of the building - which were planted in 1927. All you see are 2 twiglets.
So where are the trees? They are also there in the old postcards I have. So I looked on the Lenton Times website &, as expected, the trees are shown quite large in 1927/8. They are still there in 1947 but when you view their picture from 1960-61, it appears much more like the scene in this film. This suggests they were taken down & replanted at some stage. Fascinating stuff.

Hopefully, someone will recognise the Derbyshire location - it certainly looks like ones of the 'edges' in the background on the left.