A PREVIOUSLY unseen cine film depicting life at the Gilberd School, Colchester, has been recovered.
It shows school life in 1966 and 1967 when the campus was based on North Hill.
The film had been made as a retirement present for Ralph Sprason, who was headmaster between 1953 and 1967.
It is the only known colour footage of school life from the 1960s.
After Mr Sprason died in the 1980s, his wife approached the then head of the upper school Eddie Ross, to see if the Gilberd would like to have the film back.
Commentary - Eddie Ross and Jonathan Moran narrate the cine film
Former pupil Jonathan Moran explained: “The school were not interested at the time so Eddie kept the film safely before having it transferred to VHS in the late eighties or early nineties.
“Sadly, the person who made the transfer to VHS didn’t think to keep the original film, but fortunately Eddie had the VHS copy transferred to DVD in the early 2000s.”
Memories - the cine film was a retirement present for Ralph Sprason who was headmaster of the Gilberd School between 1953-67
The 20 minute colour film had no sound so Jonathan Moran and Eddie Ross, who run the Eddie’s Gilberd School Photos website, recorded a commentary.
In it, Eddie identifies the people, places and events that he recalled from what was his first year at the school.
Jonathan added: “I think anyone who went to school at the North Hill site will enjoy seeing this film but there are also fascinating glimpses of Colchester’s past, including Balkerne Hill before it was modernised, North Hill and the old Colchester bus station. I would have thought this material and much more besides would appeal to those with an interest in local history.”
Preview - this collage providea a glimpse of some of the images in the cine film about the Gilberd School
Eddie passed the DVD copy of the film to the Gilberd archive a few years ago and James Mitchell, who is deputy head, recently helped to recover the film and and arranged for a digital copy to be made.
View the film at: bit.ly/3oTM1xe. Eddie’s Gilberd School Photos is found at eddiesgilberdschoolphotos.blogspot.com.
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