Nostalgic School sports day from 1967

This post features a standard 8 vintage home movie from the summer of 1967 which was taken at a school sports day.

The film is part of a longer, 5 inch reel, which starts with a title page called, ‘Colour On The Move, Ilford Colorcine 1967’, which gives me the date the film was shot and the film make of Ilford. The reel was obviously taken during the year and then edited together at the end of the year from the individual reels.

Still images from the School Sports day film

School Sports day film

I found the film quite nostalgic to watch because it reminded my of my sports day at Fakenham Secondary Modern in the years I was there, which would have included the year this film was taken in 1967.

I remember taking part in all the sports which I can identify in the film, the 100 yard sprint, the sack race and the relay, although my overriding memory I have is of me chalking up the results of the races on a large blackboard. In fact, when I looked back through our family photos I found this image which shows me as a schoolboy doing exactly that!

I remember at our school the sports were not individually recorded (at least that’s how I remember it), but as ‘house marks’ and that’s what I can see on the board – I was in Nelson.

The film itself is quite short, just about a minute and seems to have concentrated on the action going on in the field rather than the parents, teachers and friends who attended, which I suppose is perfectly understandable when film was quite expensive. I assume the photographer had children or grandchildren taking part in the events shown in the film – I wonder where they are now?