Unique Wellingborough film archives destroyed by water that flooded museum

Trustees of a Wellingborough-based film archive that had been stored in the basement of the town's museum are looking for a new base after some of their collection was destroyed by flood water.

Some of The Northamptonshire Film Archive Trust's stock of films housed in the basement of Wellingborough Museum suffered catastrophic damage on Sunday, August 16, after torrential rain swamped the building.

The fire service pumped 8,000 litres of water from the basement where 4,000 reels of film in metal canisters had been stored on shelving racks three inches above the ground.

Pete Austin, trustee of The Northamptonshire Film Archive Trust, said: "The flood water was two foot deep. We had taken away 500 films for cataloguing so they are safe but one of the containers must have had a crack in it.

"We opened it up and we saw the emulsion fall off and lots of black water came out. I felt like crying. The films have been kept for so long and it took an hour to destroy it."

The collection, started 30 years ago by Mr Austin's father-in-law John Earl, contains home movies made in Northamptonshire by local cine enthusiasts who recorded major events in Northamptonshire.

Films taken by Mr Earl have been added to over the years with the collection expanded by donations of other films that would otherwise have been thrown away. The collection has been boosted further with additions of newsreels.

Mr Austin said: "We bought all these boxes to get the films out of the damp. We never thought that it would get that bad

"It's a unique archive. We have films that no-one else has. We have films of the celebrations of county events including the coronation, and Northampton General Hospital in 1944.

"This is essential as we are able to preserve a moving social history of that time. As much of the film in our collection has been made by amateur cinematographers it is unique in being the only film taken from that particular viewpoint."

Volunteers are currently digitising the archive but paying for the process usually funded by film shows has been interrupted due to Covid-19 restrictions on indoor gatherings.

Mr Austin is now looking for a new home for the collection of film, projectors and related movie film equipment, ideally within a five-mile radius of Wellingborough.

He said: "I'm desperate to re-home the collection to somewhere dry and accessible so we can get back to showing the films, raising the funds and carrying on our work."

Robert Wharton, from Wellingborough Museum, where the archive has been housed, said: "The Film Archive have had free use of the museum building for 14 years.

"The flooding was because of blocked drains in Castle Lane.

"The films damaged were in cardboard boxes - the films in plastic boxes were not affected, other than one box which was split."

Anyone who can help house The Northamptonshire Film Archive Trust's collection can contact Mr Austin via email [email protected].

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