Relive some wonderful Stewkley memories as fascinating film archive goes online

'Stewkley has been really lucky that Tony Greenslade’s collection has survived. It reflects so much of what happened here.'
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A collection of more than 100 films about villagers and village events and activities in Stewkley has gone online as a YouTube project by film archivist John Flewin.

The Stewkley Film Archive was born a dozen or so years ago after prolific village filmmaker Tony Greenslade died. His widow Margaret contacted John, whose working background had been in television news and latterly their archives. She wanted a home for her husband’s film collection.

John set to work getting an initial number of the films professionally digitised, and a year or two afterwards, in 2011, held a film show on the big screen at the Village Hall. Money raised in that event, and some other events since, was used to finance more digitisation. The new online collection includes the complete two-hour, two-part, recording of that first film show: ‘The Way We Were’.

More films and videos have been added to the Archive since, including some from villager Peter Wade and others shot by the late Terry Mead. Material from other sources includes television programmes and video shot by John himself, namely the village’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations ten years ago and the wedding of cricketer Alastair Cook at Stewkley Methodist Church.

The YouTube portal is divided into sections. One of them, May Day 1959-96, includes sound films of 18 years of the annual event held at the village school, the first film being that of 1967.

Other sections include: Ten Years Ago, Saving Stewkley (Airport Campaign), Fun & Games, Special Events, Village Hall, Church & Chapel, TV Programmes and Presentations and the Best of the Rest. A Featured Footage section changes regularly.

The Airport section contains considerable coverage of the 1969-71 campaign to save four local villages from being destroyed to make way for a new London Airport. It was the nation’s biggest local planning protest affair of the 20th century and made newspaper and television headlines for months. The films of the campaign, both from TV and amateur filmmakers, include the work of Tony Greenslade and two other members of the Aylesbury Cine Club

The late filmmaker Tony Greensladem (left) and John Flewin of Stewkley Film ArchiveThe late filmmaker Tony Greensladem (left) and John Flewin of Stewkley Film Archive
The late filmmaker Tony Greensladem (left) and John Flewin of Stewkley Film Archive

Also held in Tony Greenslade’s collection were works connected with the now defunct Aylesbury Cine Club of which he was a member. Some of these have been digitised and are available at the portal.

There is material too from Drayton Parslow in the 1970s shot by village cine film enthusiasts the late Jeremy Smith-Cresswell and the late Bill Shorter.

John told the LBO: “Stewkley has been really lucky that Tony Greenslade’s collection has survived. It reflects so much of what happened here and the fun that was had in the decades from the 1960s. It’s wonderful now to be able to share the collection with the village through the YouTube project.”

The films and videos can be viewed on tablets, computer screens and Smart TVs here.

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