Mitchell and Kenyon background

The firm of Mitchell and Kenyon was founded by Sagar J Mitchell (1866-1952) with partner James Kenyon (1850-1925), in Blackburn in November 1897. It produced and released non-fiction, fiction and fake war films under the trade name of Norden, and became one of the largest companies in Great Britain in the 1900s. Until recently Mitchell and Kenyon was most known for its fake war films of scenes from the Boer War and the Boxer rebellion.

The Mitchell and Kenyon DVD now provides 46 films which give fascinating insights into many aspects of late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain. The films provide teachers with an ideal resource to help develop:

• A sense of the period. Most of the films were made between 1900 and 1913. As a result they have a genuine period feel - ordinary middle and working class Britons appear on film as they actually were, rather than as in photographs or descriptions in textbooks. For many young people, seeing these characters walk, talk, work, sing, smile, run, jump, mess around and generally behave normally is the most powerful possible way for them to connect with these characters as real human beings rather than detached concepts.
• A sense of place. There is a good geographical range in the films, covering subjects in Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Midlands, Scotland, Ireland, the North East, Ireland and Bristol. Although the Mitchell and Kenyon films could not be seen as comprehensively covering the country, they are more than passing shots of one place at one time. They offer the opportunity to compare and contrast different places and people. They also provide comparisons with landscapes today, particularly urban landscapes. Many are remarkably unchanged.
• Awareness of the purpose of source material. Most students will be familiar with archive footage, but usually only as part of historical documentary film. The films on the DVD are presented as they were shown to audiences at the time. They have no voice-over like a newsreel and are not background watching used by a film-maker in a documentary. The films were created primarily for entertainment purposes - a significant element of the film-makers' work was to film the people of the town and then encourage them to pay to come to a picture show where they could watch themselves and their friends and families.