Mitchell & Kenyon

Kidnapping by Indians is a 1899 British silent short Western film, made by the Mitchell and Kenyon film company, shot in Blackburn, England. It is believed to be the first Western film, pre-dating Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery by four years.

The biggest English comedy hit of the year. The scene is laid on an English estate at the edge of a pond. A couple of laborers discover, protruding from the water a pair of female legs. They hasten to the rescue, secure a bench and a long plank so as to get out over the water to the point where the legs are sticking up. Just as they complete their preparations a policeman runs up and insists on going out to the rescue of the female in distress.

Troops play up for the camera in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle.

This film recreates the arrest of Thomas Goudie, a bank employee who embezzled £170,000 to pay gambling debts, using the real locations. It shows the exterior of the house where he was hiding during a nationwide manhunt and re-enacts scenes of the landlady informing on him and his arrest. The film has no explanatory titles, so presumably audiences would have known, or were told, the story.

In 1901 people in Belfast paid their tram drivers in carrots.

A group of miners (including a sole black worker) exits the colliery gates.

The ornate pavilions of cinematographs, boxing booths and menageries at Hull Fair.

This fascinating record of Edwardian Nottingham was filmed from the driver's platform of a tram on a single journey through the city centre between its two main stations. The sequence follows the same route as today's Nottingham Express Transit tramway, taking the viewer along Listergate and Wheelergate into Old Market Square before turning right into Long Row and on into Queen Street.

Bustling scenes show Edwardian Derry-Londonderry before industrialisation took hold.

A short film depicting a dramatized scene from the Boer War, produced by the Lancashire company Mitchell and Kenyon. The film portrays the rescue of two nurses from impending danger at the hands of Boer soldiers, thanks to the timely arrival of British troops. The filming took place on the outskirts of Blackburn.

Mitchell & Kenyon.

It is a dramatic film, with its colossal explosion and smouldering remains. Within seconds of the chimney's collapse, crowds swarm in to inspect the site; issues of the crowd's health and safety are clearly not a concern, as people smile, wave and salute the camera.

This film is part of the Mitchell and Kenyon collection - an amazing visual record of everyday life in Britain at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Outside a fairground cinematograph in Edwardian Lancashire.

The Lillywhites take on the Wolves at Deepdale, watched by a large crowd and the club mascot.

Early football footage from Mitchell & Kenyon.

Likely a popular routine from Percy Honri's musical theatre show. His face is seen poking through a blackout curtain, made up as the man in the moon. A hat and puppet body appears, strumming a ukulele.

A couple is attacked by warriors.

Beginning with panoramic shots of the Colthurst estate and Blarney Castle – already a popular tourist attraction by the Edwardian era – this film takes a trip through County Cork via Leemount and Carrigrohane stations. It was filmed in late spring and shown at the Cork International Exhibition, which opened in May 1902. The light railway, which shared the road with other traffic, closed in 1934.

An Edwardian football match at Newcastle's St James' Park ground.