Sagar Mitchell

Over a century ago, Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon roamed Britain and Ireland filming the everyday lives of people at work and play. For around 70 years, 800 rolls of nitrate film sat in sealed barrels in the basement of a shop in Blackburn. Miraculously rediscovered by Nigel Garth Gregory and later restored by the BFI, this now ranks as one of the most exciting film discoveries of recent times. Mitchell & Kenyon in Ireland is a unique and vivid record of Ireland at the start of the twentieth century. The collection contains 26 films made in Ireland between May 1901 and December 1902. Much of this material was unseen for over 100 years. The films include street scenes of Dublin, Wexford and Belfast; the Cork International Exhibition, scenic routes from Cork to Blarney Castle and more. They are accompanied by piano and fiddle music and commentary read by Fiona Shaw.

The biggest English comedy hit of the year. The scene is laid on an English estate at the edge of a pond. A couple of laborers discover, protruding from the water a pair of female legs. They hasten to the rescue, secure a bench and a long plank so as to get out over the water to the point where the legs are sticking up. Just as they complete their preparations a policeman runs up and insists on going out to the rescue of the female in distress.

A group of miners (including a sole black worker) exits the colliery gates.

Attending trotting matches - in which horses in harness race at specific gaits - was a popular Edwardian pastime.

Featuring footage spanning from 1901 to 1985, this little-seen footage has been found from all across the UK. This programme allows an exploration into stories of migration, community and also the struggle against inequality, while also providing the opportunity to celebrate black British culture and life on screen. Films in the programme include: Miners Leaving Pendlebury Colliery (1901), Hull Fair (1902), For the Wounded (1915), From Trinidad to Serve the Empire (1916), Hello! West Indies (1943), Mining Review 2nd Year No. 11 (1949), To the Four Corners (1957), Black Special Constable (1964), Black Police Officers (1966), Cold Railway Workers (1964), Nigerian Wedding in Cornwall (1964), Coloured School Leavers (1965), London Line No. 373 (1971), African Student Families (1975), Liverpool 8 (1972), Blood Ah Go Run (1982), The Jah People (1981) and Grove Carnival (1981)

In 1901 people in Belfast paid their tram drivers in carrots.

The ornate pavilions of cinematographs, boxing booths and menageries at Hull Fair.

Kidnapping by Indians is a 1899 British silent short Western film, made by the Mitchell and Kenyon film company, shot in Blackburn, England. It is believed to be the first Western film, pre-dating Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery by four years.

All the fun of the Whitsuntide Fair in Edwardian Preston.

This film is part of the Mitchell and Kenyon collection - an amazing visual record of everyday life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century.

This is one of four two-minute extracts from a two to three-hour procession, held to commemorate her legend in Coventry on the afternoon of 9th September 1902, as part of the city's coronation celebrations. The procession starred the fabulously voluptuous and successful London Hippodrome actress Vera Guedes as Godiva. The film begins with a lingering shot of Godiva, in her flesh-coloured dress, on her horse highlighting her significance in the procession. The remaining extracts lose her as a focus, as the procession is used as a vehicle to exhibit local trade.

Early footage of the Lucania passenger liner.

The annual championship meeting of England's premier athletics association.

Children hide behind a wall and throw snowballs at passersby. A policeman intervenes to stop the mischief but becomes a target himself.

Footage from the dawn of film taken by Mitchell and Kenyon in North England, 1901.

Passengers and crew boarding the SS Saxonia.

Female graduates and gents sporting spectacular Edwardian whiskers take part in Birmingham’s first Degree Day ceremony.

Exciting scenes of amateur cycling's 'Race of Champions' at Manchester's Fallowfield track.

Shot at the intersection of Holy Corner in Liverpool, this street is a hive of people and traffic. Arguably during the first part of this century most trade was being conducted on the streets. When this was being filmed Liverpool had become a wealthy city, and the shop fronts are filled with items for sale.

Turn of the century rugby league.