At Wessex Film and Sound Archive you can see and hear history, from late Victorian times to the present day, through moving images and sound recordings. The Archive contains over 36,000 film and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, including film and tapes of local TV and radio.
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The Torrens family visits Windsor, Kew and London
Join the Torrens family as they cram in as many sights as possible in their short trip to London - taking in Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens, the Tower of London and polar bears
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Overview
This enjoyable film starts on the Thames at Richmond before moving to Kew Gardens and Hampton Court. After negotiating a maze the family arrives in Windsor where the two boys pose by a Grenadier Guard. Next stop is the polar bear enclosure at London Zoo after which we see the boys in Trafalgar Square. After some window shopping on Regent Street, we board a Thames steamer. From St Paul's we get views of the city before ending at the Tower of London - with beefeaters and ravens.
An Irish born dentist, Robert Torrens lived with his family in Corfe Mullan in Dorset though his dental practise was in nearby Bournemouth. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Bournemouth Amateur Film Society, which began in 1930, and the Bournemouth Camera Club - which was later dubbed Crystal Productions. Amongst his many papers relating to his film making, Torrens left a scrapbbok of cuttings which gives details about the club's films and how they were made and exhibited. The papers tell how Crystal Productions would advertise that they were about to film a certain event and then screen the footage to local audiences.
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