This gem of a film was found during the summer of 2020 by Kim Madeley and given to me for historical archive purposes.
Shot on Super8 cine film with no sound, the 5 inch reel is simply labelled “Scenes of Crewe”. Although there is little detail about its background, it is known that the film was made by students of Dane Bank College and probably dates from around 1974.
It is believed that the film was a project for students in the college Arts or Media department.
There are four distinct “chapters”, with the opening scenes featuring activity at Crewe railway station. This is followed by a brief glimpse of Moreton Road as an introduction to Queens Park.
The third section features the Hilary Centre on Salisbury Avenue, and the film concludes with life on Nantwich Road in the area between Ruskin Road and Smallman Road.
Each chapter was shot direct to camera with no subsequent editing. The end result is not really about a cinematic experience and far more about those students behind the camera learning what worked well, and what less so.
The result, however, is an accidental but delightful record of a town just getting on with its business – caught at a moment in time that seems worlds away to us now.
This is a digitised version of the original Super8 which sadly had no soundtrack. I do not own the copyright to the original music added as a soundtrack for this upload.