Football Match Between St Stephen's Football Club and Moss Street School (1904)

Blackburn
1904-01-01
Silent
1m

The proud winners of a Blackburn school football match pose for posterity.

Despite the title, this film shows no actual football - the filmmakers seem to have decided instead to capture every child's face on camera in an orderly procession. The second shot shows the proud winners, and suggests that even junior football was a serious business in Edwardian Blackburn, as the players pose sternly in their stripy shirts, clutching ball and cup, while girls cheer behind them.

The growth of professional football at the end of the 19th century went hand-in-hand with the strength of the industrial north. Football occupied a special place in Lancashire's mill towns, reflected in the rigid ceremony (and the official-looking trophy) seen at this junior match between two schools in Blackburn's Little Harwood area. Moss Street School was replaced by Daisyfield Primary School in 1971.

The Old School Yard

Children – unsung stars of so many Mitchell & Kenyon films – take the spotlight.

The more-or-less formal school parades (plus the odd sports day) collected here present a more regimented Edwardian childhood than the one which so often bursts into M&K's other films. The films capture a transitional moment in British education, with classroom provision extended in 1902's Education Act.

With a variety of educational models on display - local authority and church-run (Anglican or Catholic) - some schools are more formal or relaxed than others. As we watch them parade, it’s hard not to be reminded that much of this new generation, so full of life and hope, was destined for the trenches of World War I.