Champion Athletes at Birmingham (1902)
- Birmingham
- 1902
Ambush II at Eyrefield Lodge, The Curragh (1902)
The 1900 Grand National winner at home with his trainer in County Kildare
This rare early footage is thought to be the earliest surviving film of a Grand National winner. In the 1900 race, Ambush II had sensationally defeated the favourite, the twice-winner Manifesto, who led at the last fence. The film was shot over two separate visits in January 1902 to the gelding's stables in County Kildare, during a tour of Ireland by cameramen working for travelling filmmakers Mitchell and Kenyon.
Ambush was unavailable (asleep!) on the camera crew's first visit, so they made do with shooting the stable lads jumping hedges, in a comic recreation of that amazing win (sadly this sequence has survived less well than the rest). Owned by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), Ambush II was the last Royal horse to win the National. In 2008, to coincide with that year's National, his skeleton was put on display at Liverpool's World Museum.
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Edwardian Sports
Their attention may not always have been on the pitch or the track, but Edwardian filmmakers Mitchell and Kenyon were pioneers of filmed sport.
Sport was an increasingly booming industry in the early 20th Century. Banks of mud were gradually replaced by covered stands, filled by larger (overwhelmingly male) crowds of spectators thanks to growing leisure time. It was mostly these crowds, and the prospect of drawing them to paid screenings, that attracted Mitchell & Kenyon - which explains why their cameras were so often pointed at the terraces.
Even so, these pioneering films have left us with an evocative record of sport's emergence as the mass entertainment we know today. Over 50 sporting events feature here: mostly football and rugby, but also athletics, cricket, cycling, horse racing and rowing.
54 videos in this collection
1
Champion Athletes at Birmingham (1902)
2
Arthur Mold Bowling to A.N.Hornby (1901)
3
Everton v Liverpool (1902)
4
Calisthenics (c.1905)
5
Race for the Muratti Cup at Manchester Wheelers' Annual Meet (1901)
6
Dewsbury v Manningham (1901)
7
Ambush II at Eyrefield Lodge, The Curragh (1902)
8
Leeds Athletic and Cycling Club Carnival at Headingley (1902)
9
Burnley v Manchester United (1902)
10
Great Local Derby, Accrington v Church Cricket Match (1902)
11
Mitchell and Kenyon 149 Hull F.C. V Wigan (1902)
12
AAA Championships at Fartown, Huddersfield (1901)
13
Hull F.C. v Hull Kingston Rovers (1902)
14
Leeds Lifeboat Procession and Sports at Roundhay Park (1902)
15
Bolton v Burton United (c.1904)
16
Bradford City v Gainsborough Trinity (1903)
17
Cambridge University Sportsday (1903)
18
Crews Practicing on River Lee at Cork Regatta (1902)
19
England v Ireland at Manchester (1905)
20
Blackburn v... (1904)
21
Everton v Newcastle United (1902)
22
Everton v Newcastle United (1903)
23
Halifax v Salford (1901)
24
Hull City Football (c.1905)
25
Hunslet v Leeds (1901)
26
Moss Street v St Philips Football (1907)
27
Manchester Races (1902)
28
Northern Union Challenge Cup Final - Halifax v Salford (1903)
29
Kingston Rowing Club at Practice (1902)
30
Liverpool v Small Heath (1901)
31
Manchester to Blackpool Road Race (1903)
32
Newcastle United v Liverpool (1901)
33
Notts County v Middlesbrough (1902)
34
Oldham v Swinton (1901)
35
Preston North End v Aston Villa (1905)
36
Preston North End v Notts County (1904)
37
Preston North End v Wolverhampton Wanderers (1904)
38
Rotherham Town v Thornhill (1902)
39
Runcorn v St Helens (1901)
40
Salford v Batley (1901)
41
Sheffield United v Bury (1902)
42
St Helens v Swinton (1901)
43
Sunderland v Leicester Fosse (1907)
44
Sunderland v Middlesbrough (1904)
45
Trotting Match at Springfield Park, Wigan (1904)
46
Two Oared Boat Race, Sunday's Well, Cork (1902)
47
Wales v Ireland at Wrexham (1906)
48
Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa (1904)
49
Final of International Cup at Cork Regatta (1902)
50
Warrington v St.Helens (1901)
51
Water Polo Match (c.1901)
52
Burnley Football (1903)
53
Bolton Football 2 (c.1900)
54