Basque Refugees at Stoneham and a Holiday to Lands End

From the collection of

Wessex Film and Sound Archive
Wessex Film and Sound Archive is based in Winchester. Providing the opportunity to see and hear history, the archive contains nearly 40,000 film, video and sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, ranging from late Victorian times to the present day. It includes both amateur and professional material, local newsreels, military and maritime subjects, as well as footage produced by individuals, businesses and organisations.

Basque Refugees at Stoneham and a Holiday to Lands End


There's something reminiscent in this home movie from the 1930s – with refugees escaping from a distant civil war to find safety in England

Reverend Henry Horton's gem of a home-movie features Basque refugee children, from the Spanish Civil War, living in a camp at Stoneham, Hampshire. We then accompany the Reverend on holiday to Cornwall where we see Land's End, the tiny port of Mousehole and Lanyon Quoit, one of many Neolithic structures in the region. Back in Hampshire we see a man starting his motorbike and an outdoor children's tea party before ending with views of Remembrance Sunday at Minstead.

In May 1937 just over 3,800 children from Northern Spain arrived in Southampton, in what was at that time the largest single influx of refugees into the UK. They were housed at Stoneham camp before being dispersed to host families around the country. Volunteers set up the camp and fed and looked after the welfare of the children during their stay at Stoneham, since, apart from issuing the young refugees with three-month visas, largely in response to the public outcry over the bombing of Guernica the month before, there was little official help from the UK government. Reverend Harry Horton, who made several films featuring village life in and around Minstead, was presumably part of that volunteer effort.


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From the collection

Refugee Week

To mark Refugee Week, BFI and Counterpoints Arts have compiled a collection of films that explore refugee experiences across continents and generations

From First World War newsreels to 21st Century online video, these works bear witness to displacement across the globe.

Refugee Week is an international festival of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contributions and diversity that refugees bring, and encourages a better understanding between communities.


13 videos in this collection

John Krish's deeply compassionate documentary on the resettlement of refugees in Britain; made to mark World Refugee Year 1959.
1

Return to Life

A Hungarian refugee attempts to navigate 1950s London with no English, little money and only an address on a postcard for guidance.
2

Refuge England

There's something reminiscent in this home movie from the 1930s – with refugees escaping from a distant civil war to find safety in England
3

Basque Refugees at Stoneham and a Holiday to Lands End

Fascinating, sometimes harrowing record of life in camps run by international aid agencies following the bombing of Shanghai by the Japanese.
4

Refugees in Shanghai Their Life and Their Education

Heart-rending British appeal film for funds to ease suffering of China's orphaned children and starving millions after Japanese invasion.
5

Aid to China

Powerful newsreel images of displaced Serbians seeking help at a British military base during WWI.
6

British Nurses in Serbia

Scenes of panic on the streets of Shanghai as Chinese citizens seek protection from Communist and Kuomintang violence behind Allied barricades.
7

A City of Chaos

Belgian soldiers and civilian refugees gather in Ostend in early WWI, before evacuating to England.
8

Ostend in War-Time

How did Taiwan cope with the huge influx of Chinese refugees from the mainland after the war? This report explains why the island is a symbol of hope for all developing countries.
9

Formosa - Island of Promise

Powerful online video from a refugee NGO using ingenious film techniques
10

Let Refugees Learn

11

Class of '87 - Phuong

12

Impressions of Exile

13

A Place in Mind

View full collection