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This attractive Victorian film records fishing boats in the Norfolk
harbour of Yarmouth at the end of the 19th Century. While the composition of the
camera does not offer any details of the surrounding area, the fragmentary
nature of the film - the jarring cuts and the deterioration of the print - only
serve to make it all the more intriguing. This snapshot of harbour
activity may seem unsatisfyingly fleeting today, but would have been less so when screened
- as it would have been - as part of a series of films in a single
programme.
In fact, this was one of the twenty-one subjects presented by Birt Acres to the royal
family on 21st July 1896, the day before the marriage of Princess Maud to Prince
Charles of Denmark, at one of the very first royal film performances. His
audience was sufficiently entertained that Acres was invited to return the next
day to film the wedding itself.
Christian Hayes *This film can also be viewed via the BFI's YouTube channel.
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Complete film (0:20)
