Lots of events have now taken place where we have been screening the film compilations we have made but also playing selections of the oral histories Gillian and the team of volunteers have been gathering. On 31st January we undertook the project’s first History workshop and screening was received with smiles, once a few initial technical issues were overcome, at the Rustington History Society earlier in February. Just under 70 loyal society members including the Chair Harry Clarke attended the event to watch and listen to a selection of oral history recordings that we have all been gathering from residents along the coast over the last 7 months.
Harry Clarke hosting the monthly Rustington Heritage Society meeting. January 31st 2013
We were pleased to also have Martin Hayes join us, who presented a workshop on how to use the Local Studies Service and access historical documents and records at Worthing Library. Its vast collection includes 25,000 books dating back from 1614, 2,500 in 200 volumes bound pamphlets from the 1640s, 1746 newspapers and 1.5 million+ photographs and pictures, 3000 maps dating back to 1575, to name just a few..
The headline act however, was the screening of a film called ‘A Variation On A Theme’made in 1973 by Keith Ayling and the LIttlehampton & Rustington Cine Club. Especially transferred from its unusual 9.5mm film format so that it could be screened for the first time in over 30 years to the invested audience at this event.
Unlike the majority of films in the SASE collection, that consist of footage that capture everyday life over the 20th century ‘A Variation on a Theme’ is a short fiction film. In fact a romantic ghost story.. The film’s opening scene depicts two male cyclists zooming down a country road, and then decide to picnic in the grounds of a Manor House. Whilst one has a post lunch snooze on a bench the other decides to take a wander into the Manor. It his discovery of an old photographic album that begins the mystery… as he suddenly he finds himself a hundred years previous, dressed as an officer with his bride to be.
The whole event was a great success and we’d like to thank Harry and the society members. We were also pleased to get a news item in the local Rustington Gazette.