Belmont School
16mm film Black & White Silent c.1959 17:20
Summary: Amateur film recording activity at Belmont School in Harrow Weald.
Title number: 347
LSA ID: LSA/442
Description: A record of student activity at Belmont School. It begins with children arriving at school and a queue of uniformed boys outside the building walking in. There follows shots of boys singing during a school assembly in a large hall. A gymnastics lesson, also in a hall, features several boys leaping over a wooden horse in a variety of ways. Out in the school garden there are children at work digging and planting. Inside, a woodwork class features a boy making a table stand with box joints, while other boys plane wood, assemble chair legs. A teacher helps some boys check over their bicycles. The school break time activity is managed with bells and whistles effecting a controlled entrance to the dining hall. Once inside, boys stand at tables and say grace, before sitting down to be served by dinner ladies from wheeled trolleys. The film concludes with footage of a comprehensive automobile engineering course during which boys strip down and rebuild a Rover 14 under the supervision of a beret-wearing teacher. After initial disassembly, the car's parts are cleaned and scraped, with the chassis being wheeled out on to the school ground for further cleaning. The reconditioned engine is put back in the chassis using a chain pulley and winch. The car body is repaired and the doors refitted. The chassis and engine are tested with a car pulling the skeleton of the rebuilt vehicle and the engine is fired into life. The body parts are re-sprayed with paint and the body is replaced on the chassis. The water, oil and petrol tanks are filled and the completed car is crank started into life once again before being test driven out onto the school ground.
Keywords: Schools
Locations: United Kingdom; England; London; Harrow
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Comments
I remember the dinner hall well. I must be in the film somewhere but could not find but I remember some of the teachers faces if not their names. The school changed my life around and as a result I joined the Metropolitan Police for great years of service. Now retired with occasional acting parts for ITV comedy Off their Rockers. I thank the school teachers back then for all their help. They helped me have a happy rewarding life. It would be nice to know if my old class register on record.