Video: ‘Reel ale’ film features rare York footage
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A trailer featuring York clips from the Reel Ale film put together by Yorkshire Film Archive for YorkMix
A telly star visiting the Castle Museum pub, crowds at the Magnet Cup on Knavesmire and the much-missed John Bull all feature in a unique film all about Yorkshire beer and brewing screened this month.
As York Beer And Cider Festival brings thousands of ale lovers to Knavesmire, City Screen Picturehouse has teamed up with the Yorkshire Film Archive for a trip down memory lane.
Supported by Keighley brewer Timothy Taylor’s, the Yorkshire Film Archive, based at York St John University, has delved into the vaults and compiled a 90-minute movie that raises a pint to the county’s brewing history, its iconic watering holes, and the characters that frequented them.
“Following on from the popular BFI collection Roll Out The Barrel: The British Pub On Film, we wanted to bring to our audiences a more localised feature to coincide with the end of this year’s York beer festival,” said City Screen marketing manager Dave Taylor.
“It’s a great opportunity to enjoy some reels of Yorkshire ‘beer’ film combined with a real ale or two from the Riverside Café-Bar!”
The special screening takes place on Sunday, September 22. YFA’s archive manager Graham Relton will present a film show overflowing with archive clips.
Many feature York. In one clip TV star Barbara Kelly, wife of actor Bernard Braden, opens the King William IV pub at the Castle Museum in 1963.
A colour clip, also from 50 years ago, documents an exciting Magnet Cup at York Racecourse, sponsored by John Smith’s, and it also features a film about the campaign to save the John Bull pub in Layerthorpe in the 1990s.
These also feature in a trailer specially put together for YorkMix which you can see above.
The YFA’s beer and brewing movie also includes a rare, pre-television advert promoting Melbourne Beer that would have been shown in local cinemas in Leeds.
Graham Relton said: “The screening is a great mix that celebrates the popular Yorkshire pastime of beer – whether it’s the brewing process at Hammond’s, Timothy Taylor’s or Samuel Smith’s; footage of the iconic Woolpack pub in the mid-1980s; New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Thirties or a dreaded post-war beer shortage – there should be something to suit everyone’s taste.”
The screening is supported by Timothy Taylor’s, brewers of the marvellous Landlord beer. On the YFA website you can see a short film from 1975 that explains the brewing process behind a pint of Timothy Taylor’s.
- The ‘Reel’ Ale screening from the Yorkshire Film Archive is rated PG and takes place at City Screen on Coney Street, York on Sunday, September 22 at 6.15pm
- Tickets can be booked from the City Screen Box Office, on 0871 902 5726 (10p a minute from a landline) or on the Picturehouses website