Friday 24 July 2009

4,000 babies

I'm not sure whether to thank Transpontine for introducing me to the British Pathe archive! It's full of fascinating material, so much so that I could easily waste far too much time browsing.

Among the gems is this film of Deptford midwife Miss Elsie Walkerdine at her retirement in 1957. She delivered over 4,000 local babies, and is shown visiting one of the last, Colin Paul Leary.

Still on the childhood theme, earlier films show poor children of Deptford, and rather more confident youngsters enjoying themselves at the Rachel McMillan Nursery School in 1939. There's a poignant moment when the voiceover refers to the nursery 'founded during the War': while the film was shot in peacetime, a month later Britain would again be at war.

1 comment:

LostinManc said...

I can see I'm going to get nothing done today...