A short compilation of film material held by Screen Archive South East, screened at the Chichester Drive-in cinema events in August 2020. One of two shorts screened during the event with accompanying music composed by Nina Humphreys

The film begins in 1925 with scenes of the Selsey tram pulling into Chichester platform. People are seen getting off the tram and going into the station, with the tram pulling away with new passengers. A shot of Chichester follows, with cars and people walking along the street. The film then shows a group of workmen walking into Shippam's factory.

The film then cuts to showing footage from the Silver Jubilee celebrations on the 6th of May 1935, first showing general views of a main road, with people cycling and driving. A group of three officers is then seen with the one leading carrying a neutral expression, and the two trailing smiling happily at the camera. Further shots are shown of the parade lining the streets culminating in the parade being led by a marching band, the mayor, aldermen and other dignitaries.

Transitioning to 1953, shots are shown of a theatrical group driving through the streets of Chichester in an old car. The camera is mounted on a lead vehicle, filming the promotional Jalopy which follows it through the central streets of Chichester. The Jalopy, an opened-top vintage car, carries an actor dressed as a Red Indian and a banner proclaiming "We are taking Hiawatha to the Granada in our jalopy". The car attracts the gaze of the Chichester shoppers as it rounds the Market Cross and passes the (Granada) Corn Exchange.

A produce car for Shippam’s paste passes the factory before being unloaded.

The film then transitions into colour as general shots of Chichester in May 1962 are shown. Showing views across fields towards the cathedral, as seen from the railway footbridge. The film then captures the Chichester Cross (the Market Cross) at the intersection of the city centre's four main roads - where pedestrians and traffic pass around the monument. Shoppers and cyclists are among the cars on the busy streets. Chichester's Georgian buildings are featured along with a variety of shopfronts and businesses, including: fuel pumps at Pages Garage, Arthur Purchase & Son, Constable, J. Sainsbury, next to W. H. Smith & Son, and Stead and Simpson.

Finally, the film ends with colour footage of a visit by HM Queen Elizabeth II on Maundy Thursday 1986. HM Queen Elizabeth II is smiling and greeting the people of Chichester, and is presented with yellow flowers as she passes. She is then filmed talking to Bishop Eric Kemp and Prince Phillip. The Queen is then shown in the back seat of her car driving through the streets of Chichester while people wave union flags. A Police officer is shown making sure the visit is undisturbed, while the Queen is driven off.

This Film is one of two drive-in cinema shorts screened at the Chichester Drive-in cinema events in August 2020.

The Selsey tram featured within the beginning of the film is part of the West Sussex Railway, a standard gauge light railway between Chichester to Selsey, opening in 1897, also known as 'Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway'. In December 1910 the line was flooded by seawater when an embankment failed at Pagham Harbour. It was not reinstated so work had to be carried out to raise the line above the waters. Although the line was successful in the decades before the First World War, it suffered financially as road transport increased in the 1920s. Despite attempts to be more efficient through modernisations, such as the introduction of petroleum driven rail car services, the railway closed to all traffic in January 1935.

The production the actors are advertising on the Jalopy is for a film called Hiawatha, a 1952 film based on the 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow centering on Native Americans in pre-columbian times.

The visit made by HM Queen Elizabeth II later on in the film is for Royal Maundy held on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. At the event, the Monarch distributes small silver coins known as “Maundy money” as symbolic alms (giving to others as a virtue) to elderly recipients. Beginning in 1699 the monarch did not attend, rather sending an official in his place. In 1931 Princess Marie Louise was at Royal Maundy, and afterwards suggested that her cousin King George V, make the distributions the following year, which he did, beginning a new royal custom. Queen Elizabeth II almost always attends, with it being held in a different cathedral every year. Today new recipients are chosen every year for service to their churches or communities, on the recommendation of clergymen of various Christian denominations.

colonelstephenssociety.co.uk. 2021. Selsey Tramway - West Sussex Railway | colonelstephenssociety.co.uk. [online] Available at: https://colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/the%20colonels%20railways/selsey%20tramway%20-%20west%20sussex%20railway/ [Accessed 21 March 2021].

Neumann, K., Edwards, V., Duguay, Y., Larsen, K., Ankrum, M., Iglesias, E., MacDonald, I., Randall, S., Emery, K., Chase, A., Silvestre, A., Tolan, M., Bartlett, R., Granger, M., Brice, R., Peterson, E. and Corden, H., 2021. Hiawatha (1952). [online] FilmAffinity. Available at: https://www.filmaffinity.com/us/film824252.html [Accessed 21 March 2021].