“I HAVE to be seen to be believed,” the Queen once famously remarked. And over the years, thousands of people in Bradford have seen Her Majesty during her visits to the city.
Now footage of those Royal visits is included in a new film by Yorkshire and North East Film Archives, marking the Queen’s unprecedented 70 years of reign.
Inspired by the Queen’s comment, the film is called Seen to Be Believed. Taking an affectionate look at how the people of Yorkshire and the North East celebrated coronations, jubilees and Royal visits through the decades, it will accompany this summer’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The 55-minute film will be made available to community groups, cinemas, local authorities and other organisations for screening during the Jubilee festivities.
Seen to Be Believed takes a look through the lens at street parties and pageants, bunting, banners and flag waving, and discovers what the Royal Family, the Queen in particular, means to the people of our region. All footage in the film was made solely by regional film-makers, both amateur and professional.
The film includes footage of the Queen’s visit to Bradford in 1954 and 1974.
On October 28, 1954, nearly 18 months after her Coronation at Westminster Abbey, Her Majesty came to Bradford with the Duke of Edinburgh. Their visit was part of a nationwide tour, and followed state visits to 11 Empire and Commonwealth countries.
It was Bradford’s first Royal visit since 1942, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth toured wartime Bradford.
Among the people in town that October Thursday in 1954 was 17-year-old David Hockney, who was in his second year at Bradford Art College.
After lunch, the Royal party was driven to the cricket ground at Bradford Park Avenue, where 30,000 schoolchildren sang to them. The Royal couple then moved on to Perseverance Mills at Dudley Hill, where workers welcomed them.
On a wet and windy November day 1974 the Queen went on a walkabout in Bradford, talking to people about the poor weather - one of the wettest Royal visits to the North for 20 years. Torrential rain soaked the official party as well as hundreds of people lining the Queen’s route, but their patience was rewarded when the Queen stopped to chat with some of the crowd on her way from opening Bradford’s new police HQ to City Hall.
Earlier, after Her Majesty had unveiled a plaque to open the new Civic Precinct, she asked the Lord Mayor, Councillor Tom Hall, to explain the origin of the word Tyrls, before entering the new Police HQ.
Police kept watch from the roof of the Alhambra as the Queen, wearing a salmon pink coat, moved about the Precinct.
The archive film also includes fascinating footage of the Queen’s parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, showing how they broke down barriers during visits and appearances, changing the public’s perception of the Royal Family - something the Queen would build upon when she took to the throne.
Prince Philip, who she referred to as her “rock”, is filmed by her side, and also in his own right on a number of solo visits to the region.
The footage is all woven together by a narrator, providing background information together with an insight into changing times and perceptions in the region.
Graham Relton, Archive Manager at the Yorkshire and North East Film Archives said “We’ve searched through our vaults and selected the very best royal footage held in our collections, made by Yorkshire and North East film-makers, to curate a film fit for a Queen.
“It’s available to hire on DVD or as a digital download and is a unique opportunity to celebrate a once in a lifetime occasion, whilst also supporting your regional film archives.”
* For more information on the pricing structure and how to book a rental of the film go to www.yfanefa.link/seentobebelieved
* The Yorkshire and North East Film Archives was formed as a registered charity in 1988, to preserve the rich film heritage of our region. It has grown from a small collection of films discovered through local community programmes to one of the UK’s leading regional film archives, respected nationally and internationally for its commitment to finding, preserving and creating access
to its collections for a wide range of audiences.
In 2012, the YFA constitution was changed to incorporate responsibility for the North East Film Archive, extending the remit of the Archive to ‘find, preserve and provide public access to moving images made in, or about Yorkshire and the North East of England’. Together the collections now total in excess of 70,000 items. The collections are mostly non-fiction material, held largely on film and videotape formats, although contemporary material is increasingly acquired on digital formats.
Collections range from regional television news and programmes to advertising collections, the output of local cine clubs, community and amateur film-makers and home movie collections revealing a rich social history of everyday life over each decade of the 20th century.
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