National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Saundersfoot 1954
The joys of sand, sea and ice-creams under a Pembrokeshire sun for the Wright family from Bristol.
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Overview
Charming record of a summer holiday taken by Philip J Wright and his wife Brenda with their 3 children – Sally (b.1948) – later an editor/publisher, Juliet (b.1950) a town planner and baby Nicholas (b.1953) a geologist/arctic specialist. On the beaches of Pembrokeshire sand pies and castles are made, to be annihilated by the sea, and the weathered ruins of vast stone castles are visited: Carew, Pembroke, Manorbier, Llawhaden. Ice-creams play their part in the holiday too.
Philip John Wright (1913-87), who filmed this footage, was a master printer, engineer and inventor who ran the Bristol-based medical and scientific printers and publishers John Wright and Sons, established by his great-grandfather John Wright at Stonebridge House, Bristol. John Wright and Sons later took over Dorset Press of Dorchester. Philip John started filming after leaving Clifton Grammar School in the 1930s and made a machine (partly from Meccano pieces) for stop-motion photography, taking images of flowers. Articles on his filming exploits appeared in Amateur Cine World Magazine, and he also made and exhibited model boats.
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