Leamington History Group produces fascinating new video about life in the town after the death of Queen Victoria and during the early 20th century

Title frame for the video Life After Victoria. Image courtesy of the Leamington History Group.

Historians in Leamington have worked together to produce a fascinating and, at times, moving short film about about the life of people in the town following the death of Queen Victoria and during the early 20th century.

Leamington History Group worked with filmmaker Mark Ellis, company director of Postmaster Media, to make Life After Victoria - a 35 minute video which has been published on YouTube which tells the story of Leamingtonians' contribution to the First World War including that of war hero Henry Tandy, the Votes for Women movement, the transformation in living conditions and workers’ rights and the birth of some of Leamington’s most treasured cultural institutions.

The film includes contributions by history group members, Warwick University academics and professional narrators.

A horse-drawn tram in Leamington. Image courtesy of the Leamington History Group.

This is now the third video covering the history of the town that Mark has worked with the history group on - the first and second being Birth of a Spa Town and The Making of Leamington's Victorian Legacy.

Mark, who has lived in Leamington for about 20 years, said: "It's fascinating to find out more about where you live and getting a new perspective of the place.

"A lot of Leamington's history is not obvious to see from just walking around the town so finding out about it was very interesting.

"Our intention is to put together a fourth video covering the Second World War and the town's post-war development including the multiculturalism of the town going back to when its Polish, Italian, Spanish and Sikh communities started to grow.

Children in Leamington in the early 20th century. Image courtesy of the Leamington History Group.

"I've been inspired to do this by working with the group and helping to do the research for these films.

"It was nice to talk to academics about the history of the Labour Movement in which Leamington was quite significant in that the Transport General Workers Union was formed in the town.

"The process to make this video took about three months - it's definitely a labour of love as a lot of effort went into it in terms of planning, research and then the process of refining it, editing it and cutting down to manageable size."

Funding for film was provided through a £2,000 community grant from Leamington Town Council

Sketch of British activist Emmeline Pankhurst. Image courtesy of The Leamington History Group.

It was launched by Leamington mayor Cllr Susan Rasmussen at a screening at Victoria House in Willes Road yesterday (Thursday August 12).

History group member Michael Pearson, was the project leader for the film and has worked on all three videos.

He said: "We have some brilliant historians in the group and my job was to get them all together and to liase with Mark

"The team works well together, everyone has the same focus, we had a lot of discussions about the theme and decided we would look at the affect the times had on people and were pleased with that really pleased.

Sketch of Leamington war hero Henry Tandy. Image courtesy of The Leamington History Group.

Myself and fellow volunteer Mick Jeffs did some narration for the video and Mick also provided some great sketches which have been used.

"Overall the quality of the film is down to the expertise of Mark and od how well it has all been researched

"I really enjoyed being a part of it."

Moe information and links to the video can be found here https://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/video-no-3-life-after-victoria/