Film-makers set off on the history trail (From Daily Echo)

Historic video of Southampton to be reshot for SeaCity Museum

10:32am Tuesday 31st January 2012 in Hampshire Heritage By Arron Hendy

IT is the oldest known film of Southampton.

Flickering images captured from the top of a tram show the High Street, The Bargate and Above Bar as they looked 112 years ago.

Now two artists are updating the movie – using a tripod on a trailer on the back of a bike.

Douglas Noble and Dee Honeybun are making the new film as part of the Heritage 100 project promoting museums across Hampshire.

It is being shot to compare modern day Southampton with the footage being displayed at Southampton’s new SeaCity Museum, due to open in April.

Douglas first saw the footage with James Jordan, English and history lecturer at the University of Southampton, after it was provided by the Wessex Film and Sound Archive for the museum.

James said: “The original film picks out some really nice details which have now been eroded or damaged.

“You can see the old Georgian and Victorian houses and shops on either side of Above Bar and you can still just about make out access to Hanover Buildings. You can also see the clock tower which is now at Bitterne Park Triangle.”

The Wessex Film and Sound Archive is funded by Hampshire County Council.

Manager David Lee was trawling through footage from the British Film Institute (BFI) when he came across the film.

It shows footage from a tram going through the Bargate arch and past where the WestQuay shopping centre now stands.

He said: “It’s a wonder it survived as a lot of films from those days were filmed on dangerously flammable nitrate celluloid stock.”

The footage would have been sold on by the original filmmakers to be shown at variety halls during the earliest periods of the “moving image”.