Made in 1902 and first featured in A.J. West's 'Our Navy' presentation at the Victoria Hall, Portsmouth on June 23rd at 8 o'clock pm. It was described in a press advertisement (Portsmouth Evening News 23 June 1902) as 'Masonic Ceremony - laying the foundation stone St Matthew's Church'. The church was bombed and demolished in WWII and is now the site of the Church of the Holy Spirit, Fawcett Road.
The film features the procession of choir, clergy and Freemasons to the church and was found in a film can, with authenticating 'Our Navy' markings, in a Portsmouth cinema. The film stock was painstakingly preserved and re-photographed. The 'Our Navy' and 'Our Army' series (1897-1913) presented 'topical' films of local events as well as its more usual diet of Naval scenes and sequences.
More details are available from the Wessex Film and Sound Archive in Winchester UK and at www.ournavy.org.uk
15 сен 2024
