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Birmingham Faces from 1901

What an amazing bit of footage, all those hats!! Where the different style of hats a signal to the different classes of employment of the staff or there positions at the works?
 
I love watching these old films - all those hats - but some ladies not wearing them !
I wonder who the man in the top hat was who appears at 3min 40secs in the film, I suppose he was very senior management. I notice works police walked near to him.
 
Thanks, there did seem to be a fair few children. And everyone looked quite clean, I imagine working in an ammunition factory to be quite dirty.

The Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa film on there is also very interesting. Though I've no idea what the two flashes of people in water are.
 
Still trying Chris. It won't let me confirm acceptance of terms to enter! I'll try again tomorrow.
 
What strike's me is that everyone has a hat, the other is how many of those young lads would die on the Somme, and other 14/18 battlefields, the other thing is how jolly most seem, when working poverty was very bad in the midlands as elsewhere.
 
hi paul
my dads brother albert died at the sommes and he is listed on the gate and he was only a young lad my dad was a air raid warden
it was a great loss to each and every one of usbut even today paul our lads out in these wild countrys of wars of today are not much olde than our great men of
our past wars which we owe a great deal to and they will never be for gotten
paul ; best wishes have a great evening astonian;;
 
I'm always interested looking at the people in old photos and video clips. To appear in a film in those days was probably quite a novelty.
What a happy bunch worked at Kynochs in 1901. I've grabbed three faces from the crowd including the Boss.
[TABLE="width: 100%"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 33%"]
happy1.JPG
[/TD]
[TD="width: 33%"]
happy2.JPG
[/TD]
[TD="width: 33%"]
theboss.JPG
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="width: 33%"] Worker or relative ?[/TD]
[TD="width: 33%"] Office Worker ?[/TD]
[TD="width: 33%"] The Boss ?[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 
lovely pretty girls and very possibly the boss, or a businessman visiting the works, I think the assumptions about jobs is about right. They would if alive be over 120 year's old, it is very interesting to look and wonder about their lives, and other family member's.
 
Chris - just wanted to let you know that I was eventually able to access the bfi film by changing over to my Firefox brower rather than using Internet Explorer. A great piece of film. I loved seeing the clothing of the day. Didn't they all look smart coming out of work with their shirts and ties and suits, and also their bowlers or caps. The ladies with their boaters and lots with pinafores on. Glad I was able to look at it, and thank you for putting the link to the site on.

Judy
 
Just watched the link - brilliant!
I love the faces of the people when they see the camera, especially the young lads who hold back to keep in view longer.
I wonder if any of the work people were ever able to see the film afterwards.
 
A Sparks said:
I wonder if any of the work people were ever able to see the film afterwards.
Click to expand...

I believe that Mitchell and Kenyon would advertise that the film would be on show at a local hall later in the week.
its how they made their money.
 
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What a find of a film. Where did you find it?
My great great Aunt Alice Myers was an Overlooker on Munitions at the works in 1901. I wonder if her face is in the crowd somewhere.
PS I shall be scouring it slowly I can see to see if I can see her
PPS does anyone know what records might exist for the factory at that time please?
 
LisaMaryCameron,

Most of what is known about Kynoch is contained in two Histories which are mentioned in the link I provided in post #7. They are based on original documents which are held either by the Company (but are inaccessible in practice) or are contained in something called the IMI Archive available at the Birmingham Library. I think it is unlikely in the extreme, however, that either of these collections would still contain any personnel records - at any one time the Company had thousands of employees and couldn't have retained information on them for more than a century.

I am interested to hear of your gt.gt. Aunt Alice's involvement at Witton. Do you have further information about her and how she fits into your family tree? If you wish to discuss it, could we do it by messaging, please, to avoid going off-topic in this thread.

Chris
 
Thanks Chris,

i thought that that might be the case, I had a friend that worked at IMI in the 80's & visited a couple of times - huuuuge!

Lisa

Moderator comment: Lisa provides some interesting information about Alice Myers. To do the subject justice and to avoid this thread going too far off-topic, a new thread has been started containing her family information.
 
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