New Forest Films now on DVD
For the first time ever, some rarely seen New Forest films have been put onto DVD and are available from the New Forest Centre. They retail at £8 and can be ordered here.
Sponsored by ExxonMobil, these are the first three volumes of what we hope will become a longer series of local history film releases:
VOLUME 1 Fawley Achievement (1951, B&W, 40 mins)
A tribute to the vision, skill, and energy of those who built Fawley Oil Refinery.
The building of the Esso Petroleum Company’s refinery at Fawley was an important part of Britain’s post-war industrial development. Its official opening in September 1951 by the Prime Minister Mr Clement Attlee confirmed the national significance of the achievement. This film documents the construction of what was to become the largest refinery in Britain and is a tribute to the vision, skill, and energy of those who worked on the project.
VOLUME 2 Oliver Kite’s Fawley (1968, B&W, 28 mins)
A naturalist’s view of the wildlife within Fawley Oil Refinery in the 1960s
Oliver Kite was a well-known naturalist and chalk stream fisherman who presented his own wildlife television on Southern Television during the 1960s. His soft tones and great knowledge of natural history gave him the title of the ‘television voice of nature’.
Oliver Kite’s Fawley is a personal look at the wildlife through the four seasons at Fawley Refinery on the west bank of Southampton Water. Within the boundary of the refinery, Kite discovers a great diversity of living things including ponies, adders, a hunting fox and even the refinery’s own flock of sheep. Contrary to expectation, this industrial setting is revealed to be a wildlife and plant sanctuary.
VOLUME 3 Forest Heritage (1952, B&W, 21 mins)
A portrait of the landscape, people and traditions of the New Forest in the 1950s.
Forest Heritage is a poetic portrait of life in the New Forest in the 1950s. The cinematography by Roy Layzell, music by Clifton Parker and commentary by John Snagge combine to make this a gem amongst the documentary ‘shorts’ of the period. It was commissioned by the Esso Petroleum Company in 1952, just as they were establishing a new refinery on the eastern edge of the New Forest at Fawley, but Forest Heritage is entirely concerned with the natural beauty and traditions of the area: ‘A place out of this modern world where simple pleasures are enough - a miraculous survival of pre-Norman England’.