1934 Spirits from the Vasty Deep

From the collection of

Archif Sgrin a Sain Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive

Established in 2001, the National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive holds an unrivalled collection of films, TV and radio broadcasts, video tapes and sound recordings relating to Wales and the Welsh, from 1898 to the present day. The collection spans multiples formats and genres, both professional and amateur.

1934 Spirits from the Vasty Deep

Archif Sgrin a Sain Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive
Aberystwyth
1934-01-01
Silent
14m

A new baby holidays with London-based lawyer Goronwy Moelwyn Hughes, his wife and sons, and Lloyd Georges David and Megan discuss a new deal.

Owen Glendower claims, in Shakespeare's Henry IV – part 1, that he can summon "spirits from the vasty deep" and here Aberystwyth university students are seen emerging from the va[r]s[i]ty deep of the Old College basement, engaged in a drama. Filmed by the Moelwyn Hughes family, this title also features holidaying with a new baby ('seine' fishing at Aberporth and trip to Sussex grandparents) and Lloyd Georges David and Megan hosting outdoor 'New Deal' meetings.

Goronwy [Ronw] Moelwyn Hughes, Labour MP for Carmarthen from 1941, is seen here addressing fellow actors from the plinth of a statue. He married Louise [Lulu] Greer, daughter of barrister Frederick Arthur Greer (eldest of the 14 children of a Manxman) who was living at the time in Sussex. The Lloyd Georges (David, wife Margaret and daughter Megan) are seen here at one of a series of conferences they hosted at ‘Brynawelon' and ‘Bron-y-de' during September and October 1934 to discuss Liberal Party politics and Lloyd George's New Deal (a programme of economic reform which he launched, without much success, in January 1935). Ronw started his political life as a Liberal but switched to Labour in the early 1930s.

Pioneers of Personal Film

At the dawn of the cinema age, these trailblazing early adopters brought filmmaking technology into the home.

Home moviemaking is older than the first cinemas: we've been filming ourselves for well over a hundred years. The birth of the cinematograph in 1895 inspired a plethora of inventions pitched at the domestic market: Kinoras, Kammatographs, Pictorialographs, Birtacs and Biokams - all cameras designed for amateurs and enthusiasts to film and project in the home. This collection celebrates the earliest home movies preserved in Britain, and bears witness to the dawn of the amateur's long-standing fascination with family, travel and community. "The object in introducing this apparatus is to endeavour to popularize this extremely fascinating branch of photography.... [I have] always looked forward to the time when animated photography would be within the reach of every one" - filmmaker/inventor Birt Acres, on his Birtac camera, 1898.