My grandfather, Wilfred Brennan, experimented with cine photography in the 1950s, taking movies of family, friends and workmates. Some of the footage he shot has survived to this day. The clips on this page have been heavily edited to reduce them to a manageable size; even so, they are best viewed with a broadband connection.
I am indebted to my cousin, Anthony Connolly, who transcribed the original cine films into digital format.
I have reproduced some still images from these movies on a separate page - you may recognise a relative - or even yourself!
This clip records the building of council houses in Jarrow around 1952. I have been unable to place the exact location, but the shots near the end of the clip suggest the High Street/Queens Road area.
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This clip records an outing from the Lord Nelson public house to Heworth golf course around 1953. It reveals that very few of the participants were serious golfers. Points to look our for include: the Hall Brothers coach in which they travelled; the old clubhouse buildings which originally stood at Jarrow golf course and the pit heaps at Follonsby Colliery (opened 1911, closed 1974).
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This clip records the official opening of the 1000th council house in Jarrow. This must mean the 1000th house post-war, because the borough celebrated the 1000th municipal house in September 1936, long before this film was taken. Regulars to the Jarrow website have located the scene in Glasgow Road on the Scotch Estate.
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This is a family movie taken on a day out at the south beach (now Sandhaven) in South Shields. The cubic tents were a characteristic feature of the beach - they could be rented for a nominal fee and were useful both for changing and for boiling a kettle when the wind got up. The cranes which used to stand on the north and south piers can be seen clearly in the background. Otherwise, little has changed in fifty years, least of all the pleasure on the faces of the children.
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Belsfield was the home ground to generations of St Bede's footballers. It was bounded to the south by Butcher's Bridge, to the east by Springwell Park, to the north by the playing fields of Jarrow Grammar, and to the west by Bede Burn Road, just the other side of Belsfield House and the old wooden buildings of St Matthews's Church. It was anything but flat; from the Bede Burn Road end the ground rose steeply, reaching its peak at the far 18 yard box, from where it dipped sharply to the goal. A well struck drive from this vantage point was almost impossible to stop. This clip shows St Bede's boys in the green and white hoops of Celtic playing unknown opponents. The action is too fast and disjointed to follow, but the background gives a nostalgic view of the old ground as it was known to many boys and men. It is now occupied by a housing estate.
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