The Lost News Reels (Upper Coquetdale Film Group)

I was very happy to be asked to write about The Lost News Reels. These are previously unseen films of Coquetdale at work and play in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. These 12 remarkable 'newsreel' style films feature local events such as the Thropton Show, the Rothbury Music Festival, and the Raft Race.

Fire and the Man

I attended the celebration event to commemorate the completion of the Lost Reels Project on September 16th, 2019. This is what I wrote for the Gazette, after the event.

How grateful we are for the vision of a most generous and talented man, the late Dr Keith McKay, who had the great foresight to record aspects of ordinary life at a time when such things were mostly undocumented.

Keith loved Coquetdale. He'd been a frequent visitor since the 50s and settled here with his family in 1989. He noted with respect and interest the people at their work; crafting traditional tools, shearing sheep, and building walls. He loved the dialect, the humour the music, and the poetry.

In the late 1960s, Keith shared his ideas for making a film. Everyone was enthusiastic, and so the Upper Coquetdale Film Group was formed in 1970.

The first film they made was Coquetdale Past and Present. As the group planned and made more films, their professionalism grew.

Dr Keith McKay

Keith Hartnell

Keith's daughter, author Kirsty McKay, recounts: “They got funding from the British Film Institute and Northern Arts - and this was a great thing. The funding gave the group confidence that they were making something worthwhile and meaningful”.

Several films were made.

Ian Thompson remembered: '“I took the films round WIs, village groups, all over. This wasn't an easy job. It was reel to reel, there was no lip sync, and the sound came via a separate tape recorder. You can imagine what it was like; sometimes we had to slow the film down, and sometimes we had to speed it up. But people appreciated it and enjoyed it'.

Over time, sadly, the reels were more or less forgotten about. They began to deteriorate. Luckily, about fifteen years ago, a group of dedicated people decided to do something about preserving this important heritage. Hazel and Tom Mason, Didi McKay, Allan Wood, Andrew Miller, and Ian Thompson formed a Committee, and they approached Keith Hartnell, from Linden Studio Films, for help.

Keith recalls: “I originally worked on the long films, that got put onto DVD. However, as I was going through the archive, I kept seeing bits that didn't seem to belong anywhere. We began to check and we realised there were some scraps. I put together some bits and pieces that had been filmed years earlier but never used'.

These 'oddments' are what have been turned into The Lost News Reels.

The Committee was keen for these 'scraps' to be saved. It was at this point in the story that the tenacity, resourcefulness, and determination of Nicola Mason Crane proved vital. Her inspired fundraising has been phenomenal. Thanks to the money raised, the Upper Coquetdale Film Group was able to commission Keith to renovate and piece together these news clips.

This is how the 'cutting room scraps' became the remarkable Lost News Reels.

Nicola Mason Crane.

At the celebration, when Nicola declared: “We've done it!” the audience burst into applause and cheered Nicola and the Film Group for this amazing achievement.

Kirsty also thanked all the kind people who donated to the fundraising page.

I thoroughly recommend you make time to look at these intriguing glimpses of a world long gone. You will be fascinated to hear the dialect, the accents, the poetry and stories. These films are really unique and very special to all of us in Coquetdale.

The DVDs have been digitally remastered from the original 16mm film.

You can see the Lost Newsreels on YouTube.

The Upper Coquetdale Film Group