Web Page 3064 27th April 2023 First Picture: Children’s Film Foundation banner

Second Picture: Early Haley Mills film

Third Picture: Still from a Foundation film

The Children's Film Foundation (CFF) was a non-profit organisation which made films for children in the United Kingdom originally to be shown as part of children's Saturday morning matinée cinema programming. The films typically were about 55 minutes long. The Foundation was formed in 1951 following the Wheare report that criticised the suitability of American programming for Saturday morning pictures. Mary Field was appointed chief executive. The Foundation was initially funded by the Eady Levy (a tax on box office receipts), receiving 5% of the Levy and the initial budget was £60,000 per year. The Foundation made around six films a year most lasted less than an hour and were shot in less than two weeks. The films featured future British stars including Leslie Ash, Keith Chegwin, Phil Collins, Michael Crawford, Phil Daniels, Dexter Fletcher, Sadie Frost, Susan George, David Hemmings, Frazer Hines, Gary Kemp, Richard O'Sullivan, Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke, Sally Thomsett, Dennis Waterman, Carol White, Jack Wild and Matthew Wright. The films also include early films from British directors such as James Hill, Gerald Thomas, Don Chaffey, Lewis Gilbert and John Guillermin. It also used established directors such as Charles Frend and The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972) was the last film production by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Some of the films were critically recognized, winning awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Moscow Film Festival and Venice Film Festival. The films were also popular on US TV and in 16mm showings in public libraries in Germany, Japan, Canada and South Africa. By 1980, attendances for Saturday morning matinées were dwindling and the Foundation's annual funding was reduced from £530,000 a year to £330,000. The Eady Levy was abolished in 1985 and the Foundation made a few further films in the mid-1980s, by which time it had been renamed the Children's Film and Television Foundation. Its last production was Just Ask for Diamond in 1988 It made no films of its own after the mid-1980s, but it survived under its revised name, and in recent years has provided fun ding for other projects. Many of its films, dating back to the 1960s, were shown on the BBC in the 1980s, in the Friday Film Special strand. Frank Richard Wells (1903–82), second son of H. G. Wells and Amy Catherine Robbins, was a main executive at the CFF. In 2012 The Children's Film and Television Foundation changed its name and broadened its role to become the Children's Media Foundation. Its archive is now held at the BFI National Archive. Stay in touch Peter GSSEDITOR@gmail.com

Web Page 3062 20th April 2023 First Picture: Gas Poker

Second Picture: Gas Fridge

Third Picture: Gas Light

Forth Picture: Gas Iron

Gas With the recent problems of within the energy area it got me to thinking how the used of gas has changed since our formative days. Here are some examples which have come to mind. One of the strangest items in my home in those days was the gas poker. We had a gas plug in point next to the fireplaces in the front and back room. This appliance was rarely used as my parents relieved on laying a proper fire so it would catch and burn away on its own. One strange things that I remember is when the engineer came to convert us to North Sea gas he insisted on converting the gas poke even though my mother told him that we did not use it. My wife’s grandmother lived in a cottage in St. Ives just outside Ringwood which was built in 1897 in the year of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee and was the first brick built house in the village, However not all rooms had the full domestic services. The upstairs rooms were only lit by a wandering lead attached to the stair rail, rather precarious. However, there was no electric light in the kitchen just one gas light on a bracket on the wall. I remember the comforting pop as the mantle lit and the soft warm light around the kitchen as it hissed away quietly to itself. Mind you that was not the only feature in the kitchen as in one corner was a built-in washing copper which was heated by a wood fire underneath, Looking at the other side of my family my maternal grandmother, when she was living in London owned a gas iron. The gas was attached to the iron from the domestic gas supply through the tap and tube at the back of the iron. There were two rows of six jets inside the body of the iron, and gas flowed from these jets, which were then lit. This heated the metal base, making it hot enough to press out creases. The thing always made a scary hissing noise which scared me intensely, luckily when she moved south to live with us she left it behind. I never really understood how a gas refrigerator worked as we never had one but our neighbour did and I remember my father being asked to go round and relight her fridge. I went along and watched but I still do not really understand how they worked. Some folks had a three legged free standing boiler in the kitchen for boiling whites the but my mother always boiled her white in a large pan on the gas cooker. I cannot finish without mentioning the geyser we had mounted over the bath in Drayton. This thing had a pilot light that was turned sideways into the main gas burners. The geyser would then make a horrendous pop and would scare us all to death. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3060 13th April 2023 First Picture: Portsdown Hill

Second Picture: Chalk Pit

Third Picture:Farlington Marshes

Looking Back. When we were growing up we never once questioned what our parents income was. We did not eat a lot of fast food as it was considered a treat and not a food group. We ate home made meals consisting of mainly meat, potatoes and vegetables and the vegetables were not an optional choice because if you did not eat your vegetables there would be no dessert for you that day We grew up during a time when we mowed lawns, pulled up weeds, babysat and helped our neighbours to earn extra pocket money. We were, by no means given everything that we wanted but we were satisfied. We went outside in the open air to play, we toured around on our bikes, went out with friends, played hide and seek, we went swimming, in fact we rarely sat inside at home. After school we went home and we did our homework before going out with friends or having friends over to visit our own home. Bottled water was unheard of we used the milk machine for cartons of drink. We always had to tell our parents where we were going, who we were going with and what time we would be home. We would ride our bikes for hours. We learnt from our parents and what they said was law, we did not even question it. The words please and thank you were always part of our vocabulary. We watched what we said around our elders and a telling off was not classed as abuse, it was called discipline and you did not hear swear words on the radio or in songs. We were very lucky as we had the slopes of Portsdown Hill to explore and the chalk pits to play in and the beaches to bathe off, plus the wilds of Farlington Marshes we could always explore. We could mess about in boats or go fishing in the creek. Life seemed much simpler then our only worries were to get our homework in on time. So much for progress, maybe I am looking back through rose coloured glasses but I know I enjoyed growing up when I did. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com

Web Page 3058 6th April 2023 First Picture: Buttered crumpets

Second Picture: Halloween Crumpets

Third Picture: Breakfast Crumpets

Crumpets. What better way to pass an evening when we were kids by getting the toasting fork out and cooking crumpets in front of an open coal fire? A crumpet is a small griddle bread made from an unsweetened batter of water or milk, flour, and yeast, popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Crumpets are regionally known as pikelets, a name also applied to a thinner, more pancake-like griddle bread a type of the latter is referred to as a crumpet in Scotland. Crumpets have been variously described as originating in Wales or as part of the Anglo-Saxon diet. In either case, breads were, historically, commonly cooked on a griddle wherever bread ovens were unavailable. The bara-planc, or griddle bread, baked on an iron plate over a fire, was part of the everyday diet in Wales until the 19th century.[4] Small, oval pancakes baked in this manner were called picklets, The word spread initially to the West Midlands of England, where it became anglicised as pikelet, and subsequently to Cheshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other areas of the north; crumpets are still referred to as pikelets in some areas. The word crumpet itself, of unclear origin. The early crumpets were hard pancakes cooked on a griddle, rather than the soft and spongy crumpets of the Victorian era, which were made with yeast. From the 19th century, a little bicarbonate of soda was also usually added to the batter. In modern times, the mass production of crumpets by large commercial bakeries has eroded some regional differences. Crumpets are distinguished from similar sized muffins by being made from a batter, rather than a dough. English crumpets are generally circular, roughly 8 centimetres (3 in) in diameter and 2 centimetres (3⁄4 in) thick. Their shape comes from being restrained in the pan/griddle by a shallow ring. They have a characteristic flat top with many small pores and a spongy texture which allows butter or other spreads to permeate. Crumpets may be cooked until ready to eat warm from the pan, but are also left slightly undercooked and then toasted. While premade commercial versions are available in most supermarkets, freshly home-made crumpets are less heavy and doughy in texture. They are usually eaten with a spread of butter, or with other sweet or savoury toppings. While in some areas of the country the word pikelet is synonymous with the crumpet, in others (such as Staffordshire and Yorkshire) it refers to a slightly differing recipe. If differentiated from the crumpet, a pikelet is defined as containing no yeast as a raising agent; as using a thinner batter than a crumpet; and as being cooked without a ring, giving a flatter result than a crumpet. In Stoke-on-Trent, pikelets were once sold in the town's many oatcake shops and still are. A 1932 recipe for Staffordshire pikelets specifies that they were made with flour and buttermilk, with bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent, and suggests cooking them using bacon fat. The term pikelet is used in Australian and New Zealand cuisine for a smaller version of what in Scotland and North America would be called a pancake and, in England, a Scotch pancake, girdle or griddle cake, or drop scone. A Scottish crumpet is broadly similar to the crumpet of parts of Northern England. It is made from the same ingredients as a Scotch pancake, and is about 180 millimetres (7 in) diameter and 8 millimetres (0.3 in) thick. It is available plain, or as a fruit crumpet with raisins baked in, usually fried in a pan and served with a fried breakfast. It is also sometimes served with butter and jam. The ingredients include a leavening agent, usually baking powder, and different proportions of eggs, flour, and milk, which create a thin batter. Unlike a pancake, it is cooked to brown on one side only, resulting in a smooth darker side where it has been heated by the griddle, then lightly cooked on the other side which has holes where bubbles have risen to the surface during cooking. While now relatively uncommon in Ireland, crumpets were once produced by Boland's Bakery in Dublin during the 19th and much of the 20th centuries; Boland's recipe was subsequently used by a number of other bakeries. Irish crumpets differed from most British recipes by having a yeastless batter and being cooked on both sides, giving a smooth rather than spongy top. I must admit that I prefer them with lashings of butter, some friends like to put Marmite on theirs but I am one of those people who actually hate Marmite. Stay in touch Peter gsseditor@gmail.com