
Purbeck In The Past
May 1, 2024
Villages of Rutland
May 1, 2024More than at any time in our past, our towns and cities are undergoing great change. Fortunately, in the case of Wimborne, the important events such as preparations for war and the VE day celebrations and everyday life in the town was captured by film-makers. We will see fascinating films at the start of the second world war when engineers were in the area training for any eventuality. Many scenes with soldiers in the streets of Wimborne.
Other films, presented by local historian John Loader, show Reg Rodway’s films in and around Wimborne. He was a local garage owner and very much part of the community. Colour films by Reg Day show market day in the spring of 1945. The war was nearly over and local farmers gather at the livestock market. As the narrative suggests, the war is still on but the country needs to be fed.
Altogether a feast of archive film. DVD Duration approximately 75 minutes
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W.R. ‘Bill’ Mitchell joined the Dalesman magazine in 1949, starting a journalistic career inspired by owner Harry Scott’s adage ‘put people before things.’ He took over as editor from Scott in 1968, a position he held for eighteen years. As well as editing Dalesman and its sister publication Cumbria, Bill had a prodigious output extending across over two hundred books, innumerable articles and countless lectures. His thirst for knowledge and a keen listening ear made him an expert on many topics. He had the skill of putting often-reticent Dales folk at their ease, his interviews reflecting a bygone age and remaining for posterity in the W.R. Mitchell Archive.
In 1996 Bill was awarded the MBE for his services to journalism in Yorkshire and Cumbria and received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the university of Bradford. In 2007 he was awarded a Golden Eagle Award from the Outdoor Writers’ and Photographers’ Guild which cited him as one of the founding fathers of outdoor writing. Two years later he was voted ‘Greatest Living Icon’ for the Yorkshire Dales National Park in a poll to mark the 60th anniversary of the National Parks.
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