Covid Update, Feb 2022

BSA: 1953 Rushes, Reel 3.07a

Back to the Eli Simpson film rushes page:   In 1953 The British Speleological Association initiated a project under the leadership of Eli Simpson to make a 16 mm film about limestone caves in the Yorkshire Dales called "Birth of a Yorkshire River". They had a number of sessions filming both on the surface and underground, experimenting with both monochrome and Kodachrome film. The project was eventually abandoned, but the rushes were discovered in the Eli Simpson Archive held by the BCRA. This Kodachrome footage shows an archaelogical excavation at the important Cave Ha 3 site at Giggleswick scar, which has produced Neolithic burials. This was first excavated by McKenny Hughes in 1874, and then by Eli Simpson in 1940. John Tobin, who was the first cameraman on the film project, led the 1954-1955 excavations which have been filmed here. These rushes feature a very large jack hammer, Eli Simpson and the glamorous blonde.