Miners Demonstration at Wakefield (1908)

Infectiously lively film of a Yorkshire mining community's grand day out.

Everyone here is well dressed (women in bonnets; men in three-piece suits, sensible caps, respectable bowlers or an occasional dashing homburg). Rosettes, banners, brass and drums furnish the spectacle. But this is not your typical Edwardian procession film. It's redolent less of pomp and circumstance than of a raucous family outing, while hints of political dissent make it more intriguing still.