British Pathe Starters for Study

Oct/

2009

A series of Starters for Study packs prepared by Kent County Council show how the British Pathe Archives materials can be harnessed in a range of different curriculum areas. These fascinating insights into Kent life by Keith Harcourt explain how to search Pathe and other resources, how to download the material and incorporate into classroom presentations.

How to get the best out of British Pathe.
Keith Harcourt offers tips to get right to the heart of the archives including the secret of selecting and downloading high quality still photographs and comments whilst searching newsreels. Many instructions are tailored for users in Kent but are absolutely applicable to all schools connected to the British Pathe archives via a Regional Broadband Consortium (RBC.)

Keith's tips are based on the original archives website. Site updates completed during 2009 have improved functionality see British Pathe News Update on this website..

Coal in Kent
Geologists first thought that there was coal beneath Kent in the 1840's but in 1880 at Shakespeare Cliff, Dover the theory was tested during the borings for the first Channel Tunnel. Iron ore and coal were found in 1890. In 1896 the Kent Coalfields Syndicate was formed to buy the right to start a colliery at the site of the tunnel workings. This ?Starter for Study? provides invaluable links to Pathe materials and other related sources.Click here to download Coal in Kent help sheet... (pdf) 395 KB

1953 East Coast Floods
On the winter weekend of January 31st and February 1st, 1953, freezing temperatures, a high sea, hurricane force winds and a very high tide caused the worst flooding in Britain in the 20th Century. In one night on January 31st the floods took 307 lives, washed over 800 square kilometres of land and made 21,000 people homeless. The wind turned the North Sea into a weapon of destruction for the coastal defences causing millions of pounds worth of damage.

Click here to download 1953 floods helpsheet... (pdf) 259 KB

History of Kent Hopping
British Pathe started its coverage of Hop Picking in Kent in 1919 and ended it in 1970 having covered it on average every 2.5 years, other than during the Second World War, in between. The high definition still pictures from the British Pathe site are only available if teachers choose to look at them before going on to view the video. View them first and add the ones you want to your basket, then choose the high definition video and add that too, all will then download together and an email will be sent to you with links to the items chosen.

Click here to download Kent hopping helpsheet... (pdf) 792 KB

Shortest Railway
An Information sheet to support the use of the British Pathe Film SHORTEST RAILWAY. The Search Term used to find this clip on http://www.britishpathe.com/ is Wingham. This film was shot on The East Kent Railway (EKR) in 1938.
The EKR opened in 1912 to link the collieries to the main line at Shepherdswell and to the sea at Port Richborough. Coal was the main traffic and passengers were not given much luxury. Teachers can use the still photographs with the class to study the make up of the train. According to the sound track there were only two each day! The area had very bad roads and so many of the essential supplies would have come in by train. Passenger services only began in October 1916, the first service being from Shepherdswell to Wingham Colliery. By 1925 there were passenger services to Canterbury Road (Outside Wingham) and to Sandwich Road (On the Richborough branch).

Click here to download Shortest railway helpsheet... (pdf) 253 KB

Pathe support thumbnail	kent coalfield	British Pathe East Coast floods 1953

Links

• Visit the British Pathe website

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