Archive footage shows construction of York university

1:57pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News

Archive footage shows construction of York university Archive footage shows construction of York university

ARCHIVE footage of construction work at the University of York can now be viewed online.

The colour footage shows the creation of the first colleges and departments of the university, at Heslington West, between 1963 and 1965.

The 18-minute video, which also includes vintage shots of the city and was uploaded to YouTube by Shepherd Group, who built the buildings at the time.

Comments(9)

notmyrealname says...
2:45pm Mon 18 Mar 13

Fantastic piece of film from the days when Ford Anglias ruled.
Looks so dated now - traffic on the city centre streets and no tourists
Anyone recognise any of the students ?

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Garrowby Turnoff says...
3:51pm Mon 18 Mar 13

I really was enthralled by the production techniques used. Wonderfully atmospheric and pompously posh.

But from an 'elf and safety at work' aspect it shows a nightmare scenario of men attired in donkey jackets, woolly hats and wellies. There's no sign of safety helmets, goggles, gloves, steel toed boots, hi-viz anything or even a mask. Gawd forgive the Safety Officer at Shepherds, though 99% of people you see will be long dead.

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AnotherPointofView says...
6:40pm Mon 18 Mar 13

I found the film of York very interesting.

I can see why, in the sixties they thought the design "beautiful". Looking back at a lot of the concrete buildings from that time, they really are dreadful eyesores.

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Scarlet Pimpernel says...
7:58pm Mon 18 Mar 13

Garrowby Turnoff wrote:
I really was enthralled by the production techniques used. Wonderfully atmospheric and pompously posh.

But from an 'elf and safety at work' aspect it shows a nightmare scenario of men attired in donkey jackets, woolly hats and wellies. There's no sign of safety helmets, goggles, gloves, steel toed boots, hi-viz anything or even a mask. Gawd forgive the Safety Officer at Shepherds, though 99% of people you see will be long dead.
The nightmare nowadays is 'elf n safety' !

No problem with PPE, that's welcomed, but, the obsession with CDM, COSHH, method statements, risk assessments, registers etc has taken the fun out of building and diluted skills in the process. It's gone way too far, and there is too much paperwork which is an unwelcome distraction.

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Guy Fawkes says...
8:49pm Mon 18 Mar 13

A similar promo film was made when the University of East Anglia was built, and was occasionally reshown when I was a student there in the early '90s. The scene that sticks in my mind was a shot of a building site: in the background, you can clearly see someone filling up a petrol generator from a jerrycan, puffing away at a cigarette all the while!

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Peter Plonker says...
10:33pm Mon 18 Mar 13

they ruined bunny hill

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Magicman! says...
3:32am Tue 19 Mar 13

All these early colour films seem to use the same music!

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Magicman! says...
3:35am Tue 19 Mar 13

Also, looks like Parliament Street and Piccadilly junction used to have a roundabout.... compared to the congestion-creating traffic lights we have today.

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Buzz Light-year says...
9:17am Wed 20 Mar 13

I recommend watching the footage from the yorkstories.co.uk website.
That way you don't get the advert and it won't crash your browser like this one does.

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