Members enjoyed a nostalgic evening at our last meeting when Frank Oliver showed some vintage films of Herne Bay made by the late John Clague.. Frank explained that since he was a young lad when his father had bought him his first cine camera he had always been interested in photography and making films himself. He had recently been given the opportunity to join the volunteers helping Tim Jones who is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media, Art and Design at Christ Church University working on researching amateur cine in the Canterbury area between the 1920s and 1960s. This research led to the discovery of several collections of early amateur films including those made by John Clague and Frank has enjoyed restoring some of this collection and transferring it to DVD.
Members were able to view many clips and excerpts of films depicting scenes and events in Herne Bay dating back to the late 1930's coming right up to the 1970' and 80's. The later films which were in colour were evocative of the era. A vote of thanks was given by member Tony Smith who said that this excellent show had reminded him of many pleasant personal memories of places and people in the town.