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about the collection

The Yorkshire Film Archive is an active regional resource with an ever-growing collection. Most of our collection is non-fiction film and video, with subjects ranging from agriculture to industry, from family life and education through to social issues and travel.

Highlights include early film of Queen Victoria opening the Town Hall in Sheffield in 1897 and poignant footage of a sports day at Ripon Racecourse in 1916 for troops about to depart for the First World War. Yorkshire's industrial heritage is shown in early 1930s film of the blanket mills of Dewsbury. Rural scenes in 'Dale Days' - colour footage shot in the 1940s - contrast with inner city life and the work of St George's Church in Leeds the late 1950s. 'Something'll Happen By Friday', a documentary made in 1962 following a week in the life of the Whitby Gazette , shows a different world from the Bradford Mela celebrations, recorded in 2000.

Our staff are constantly working to make the collection accessible. They conserve films in the Archive's state-of-the-art temperature- and humidity-controlled vaults. This dramatically reduces their rate of deterioration and increases the films' long-term accessibility. The Archive duplicates film for ease of access, which also protects the original materials from coming to harm. If you would like to access a sample of our catalogued films in the online database, you can search the database now.

Recent additions have come from regional bodies like the Borthwick Institute and Armley Mills Industrial Museum, and from companies such as Brook Motors (Huddersfield) and Sharps Carpets (Bradford). However we have to undertake preservation and cataloguing work before the films can be made available. If you would like to see some examples, you can view collections here.