Sunday School Outing (additional scenes)

Children from the East End of London enjoy a Sunday School outing at an Essex retreat.

Cheerful children on the Sunday School outing sit on the ground and walk about with plates of food and drinking glasses. Behind them, the carriages (without the horses) appear to have coverings with the words ‘Poplar’, ‘Limehouse’ and ‘Stratford’. They are joined by a bowler-hatted man seen in other films from this small collection (Cat 1227 and Cat 1370). He encourages them to sit down in rows while they eat. Some of the children are barefoot, perhaps to take part in the running races. They are enjoying themselves and some of the children are aware of the camera. In front of the swing boat rides, groups of women and girls jump skipping rope in their coats and hats while others watch and then join in. There is much amusement, and some fall over. Four women ride on donkeys as the children and men wave them along and the bowler-hatted man appears to fall in front of the camera. Small girls take part in running races as others watch. One is uncertain what to do at the finish line, and the second race ends up with several toddlers falling over. Again the bowler-hatted man is organising things. More shots of the picnic in front of the carriages. Boys pose as a group for the camera.

Keywords

Children; Leisure; Sunday Schools; Fairground amusements; East End of London

Background Information

Part of a small collection of 35mm films, found in an empty Essex house without any explanatory information. Their content reveals that they relate to the Baptist church community of Poplar and Bromley Tabernacle, London where the Reverend Alfred Tildesley was an enthusiastic early adopter of the cinematograph. For more than 17 years he organised Thursday evening film shows, and is known to have arranged for films to be made of the Tabernacle activities. See Dean R. Rapp, A Baptist Pioneer: The exhibition of film to London's East End working classes 1900 - 1918 published in Baptist Quarterly, 40:1, pages 6-21, 2003