www.wrington.net

There are currently over 140 videos of varying length on the website - see                                          They came about with the advent of digital cameras, and the first was of the Village Fete in 2008. Previously, VHS videos were made from the mid-1980s of village events, including virtually every Drama Club production from 1990. Until reliable digital still cameras were available - and affordable - still frames were taken from the VHS recordings as a cheaper and faster way of photographing events. These were used at all events, including the first Fair Week and Pageant in 1988, and for conveying, by photographs and transcripts, the gist of a series of conversations recorded with local businesses in 1988, when it became clear that a number were on the point of closing. See also Bob Bowen’s photographs. In addition to the present shops, there were Cook's and Temple's grocers, both on the south side of Broad Street, as was Mrs Millard, boot & shoe shop. There was Country Fresh (Gina Moss & Janet Bell) on the corner of the Triangle, Carol Ann, a dress shop, and Richards Garage & hardware shop, in what once had been The Old Bell pub, on the north side of Broad Street; there were two butchers - Pearce's where the Treasury and, until recently, an accountancy firm are/were, and Trevor Wedlake opposite the church on the north corner of the Station Road end of Church Walk. There was gents’ hairdresser, Mr Bagley, Lloyds Bank and the Nat West opposite Amors, the two Tincknell brothers - Ivor for hardware and John for builders merchandise -  on the site immediately before Westward Close opposite the Kirks’ fish and chip shop, whose stove was coal fired; there was Angus Spalding's electrical shop just past the (old) chemist’s shop in Silver Street, and Mrs ‘Antique’ Kennet sold antiques from her home, Tanners, next to Glaisters at the Silver Street end of Church Walk (formerly known as The Dring). Her husband’s back features him viewing the scene from the top of the church tower on the All Saints’ homepage. Editing was a problem in the days of VHS or Betamax, because it meant copying the original recordings selectively to become a new ‘master’ tape, with a consequent deterioration of quality with every generation. Even the still photographs produced by copying still frames from the videos resulted in the same progressive loss of quality. There was also the inevitability that VHS tapes deteriorate with time, and eventually become unplayable. Nevertheless, some of the 1980s VHS tapes were edited to produce compilations of sequences from them. These were shown publicly on two occasions as the basis of charity evenings run by the Wrington WI. They proved popular as they reminded many in the audiences of acquaintances, friends and relatives from up to a quarter of a century before. In 2015, a start was made in digitising them to save them for posterity. This makes one realise that audiences from now on will be less and less likely to recognise the people pictured, but they do convey something of the nature of village life from earlier years. In the course of digitising it has been possible to subtitle the names of some of those taking part, but not, unfortunately, the majority. The digitising process will not be anything like completed by the end of 2015, but it is hoped to add links to additions in the list below in due course.

COMPILATIONS OF EXTRACTS FROM 1980s VHS VIDEOS

COMPLETE 1980s/EARLY 90s VHS VIDEOS

OTHER SOURCES

Standard 8mm

16 8mm