One of Hampshire Archives Trust’s biggest achievements was the development of a regional archive specifically for film and sound archives. Wessex Film and Sound Archive was set up under the aegis of the Trust, to be jointly administered with Hampshire County Council. With support from both organisations, as well as from others, including the British Film Institute, WFSA flourished and has become an important regional archive. WFSA is based at Hampshire Record Office and in 2019 HAT was delighted to pass WFSA over entirely into the management of the Record Office.
WFSA holds over 22,000 cinefilms and video recordings, and over 16,000 sound recordings relating to Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The collection is very diverse, ranging over professional, amateur, and documentary recordings from a variety of sources, each offering a unique insight into the region’s past. This fantastic resource includes content dating back to 1897 and is continually being added to. The film and sound archives include:
- Newsreels and professional films of local events
- A wealth of amateur film and video
- Research and advertising film produced by local businesses (eg Vosper Thorneycroft, British Maritime Technology, Portsea Island Co-operative Society, Southern Electric and Huntley & Palmers)
- Local radio tapes
- Oral history recordings
- Gramophone discs and tapes of local interest (including the Bournemouth Orchestras)
- A selection of local TV and radio programmes from 1958 to the present day.
Select the Fordingbridge case study to find out more about the work of the WFSA team.
Do you have film footage, sound recordings, video recordings, digital recordings or film equipment that you are unsure what to do with? WFSA welcome items of local or regional interest as gifts or on the long term loan.
Find out more about WFSA.
Case Study:
WFSA Fordingbridge Films by Jack Hood
