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.
This film is part of Free
Weymouth
Enjoy this nostalgic look at the Dorset resort of Weymouth - complete with beachtime fun, Punch & Judy, fishing and a Beauty Queen tug-of-war.
From the collection of:
Overview
This film contains many views of Weymouth and its many attractions, starting with its royal connections. We then see families enjoying themselves on packed beaches, a Punch & Judy show and a Royal Navy open day on a frigate. A junior talent show is followed by a beauty contest and also a look at the working port. Sea fishing and other sports and pastimes are featured. We visit locations outside Weymouth before returning to a King Neptune ceremony and an all-girls tug-of-war.
The warship seen in this film was HMS Grenville, originally a U Class destroyer launched in October 1942. In her time she served on anti-submarine patrols in the North Atlantic, supported the Anzio landings in the Mediterranean and took part in the D-Day landings in 1944. After serving in the British Pacific Fleet she returned to Portsmouth in 1946. After an extensive refit, starting in 1953, she was converted into a Type 15 frigate, as F197, and received a new commission as leader of the 2nd Training Squadron based in Portland, which is close to Weymouth. In the early 1960s she was in Gibraltar but returned to Portsmouth, where she would eventually become a surface weapons trial ship. She was scrapped in 1983.
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