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Title: AUCHENHARVIE HOUSE : An Ayrshire Experiment

Reference number: 8952

Date: 1949*

Director: d. Eileen H. Riches

Sponsor: Ayrshire Education Authority

Production company: Ayrshire County Council

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: bw

Fiction: Non-Fiction

Running time: 30.14 mins

Description: A documentary showing skills and personal qualities taught to girls attending Auchenharvie school in Ayrshire. The forward thinking nature of certain lessons are contrasted with the old-fashioned views of two Auchenharvie ghosts.

See also ref. 3628

Credits: sc. Eileen H. Riches
period costumes and settings by Marie Barton
d. ph. Weston Henderson

Shotlist: [Shotlisted from speed corrected .avi file using VLC media player]

ocs (.29) Title (.34) ocs (1.08) The name Auchenharvie is an ancient one and this house itself has quite a long and interesting history. (1.17) But never more interesting than the history which is being made there today. (1.28) gvs school girls approaching house by paths and fields, on foot and riding bicycles (2.52) There are no ghosts at Auchenharvie, but let us call up a shade or two from the past. (2.58) exts. of house (3.04) Lady of the year 1710, your bedroom and kitchen are still here. (3.11) gv's same (3.27) Come back and see what is happening now at Auchenharvie. (3.35) girl dressed in 18th century costume is superimposed on the ints. 'appears'; she expresses surprise (4.12) This part of the house is new to her. It was built in the reign of Queen Victoria. (4.20) c/u ghost (4.25) And here, in her own Victorian drawing room, where she used to sit over her needlework, is a later mistress of Auchenharvie. (4.39) Victorian ghost beckons (4.51) It is so satisfying to have the "new look". (4.57) Victorian ghost shows her outfit (5.04) There is someone coming! No need to hide. You are quite invisible. (5.11) women hiding (5.23) Here come the latest occupants of Auchenharvie. (5.28) school girls running through the room in gym kit (5.34) Auchenharvie is now a school for girls between the ages of 13 and 15. These girls are spending the last years of their school lives here, where efforts are being made to give them practical instruction which will be of immediate use to them in their everyday lives. (5.58) sets of girls perform forward rolls in sequence (6.05) A healthy body is a necessity for a happy life. What do our two ladies think of this? (6.16) ms ghosts in shock (6.25) Perhaps we had not tell the ladies, but there is more of it going on outside. (6.36) girls perform a variety of co-ordinated exercises in fresh air. ghosts hurry away, glancing back (7.38) What have we here? (7.42) ghosts enter the kitchen (7.54) Ah! This is better. At least something seems to be cooking. It is. (8.00) ghosts watch a girl turn off stove. (8.13) Auchenharvie House End of Part 1. Auchenharvie house (8.20) Part 2 (8.26) In conditions as nearly as possible resembling those of home, the girls of Auchenharvie learn every branch of domestic science. (8.40) gv's girl fetches a jar from pantry and rolls out pastry, checks a pie; girls run out to lines and hang up washing in the sun (9.50)gvs two girls knotting a semi-circular rug; making beds; removing wallpaper and painting (10.42) ghosts peek through keyhole at girl hoovering carpet; flower arranging; girl scrubbing table (11.47) Child Welfare (11.52) girl plays with two toddlers; gv's grinning girls being shown how to bath a young baby, by a woman wearing a face mask (12.32) girls needleworking in dappled shade, then arranging table with their handiwork as ghosts look on. girls greet a man at door (13.14) Many distinguished visitors have had lunch or afternoon tea at this school. (13.23) serving soup to visitors intercut ghost shaking head(14.04) Modern ideas of correct behaviour, Victorian Lady, are consideration for others, forgetting your own nervousness in putting others at their ease. (14.17) girl serving tea to lady wearing a hat; c/u (14.29) Well, what do you think? It wasn't done in your day, so it must all be nonsense? (14.38) ghost expresses consternation (14.44) You don't approve of this either, do you? (14.47) c/u cooker (14.51) Or this? (14.53) girl operating sewing machine (15.07) Or even this? (15.10) c/u mangle (15.18) Encouraging laziness? We don't think so. Modern young women can make their own clothes - (15.28) girls sewing clothes; group of girls model their dresses (16.01) - and still have time for Music (16.04) girls given piano lessons. choir singing (16.54) Drama (16.59) gv's outdoor drama class, girl pretends to strangle her classmate, class performs co-ordinated mimes in a group (18.12) girls painting (18.41) A creative hobby makes life satisfying and interesting. (18.48) Auchenharvie House end of part 2. (18.54) Auchenharvie House Part 3. (19.01) Do we learn "Household Accounts" and "the use of the globes"? Well see for yourself. (19.12) girls reading maps outside (19.31) Modern inventions have made each one of us a "citizen of the world". Knowledge of other peoples and other lands brings sympathetic understanding and abolishes narrow-minded intolerance. (19.46) Current Affairs class. ghosts shrug at Ballot box (20.03) You never had a vote ladies? You don't approve. (20.09) board displaying election candidates for prefect (20.13) But these girls will take part in electing the future governments of Great Britain. (20.20) gv's girl voting (20.33) They learn what has gone before that they may have an understanding of what comes after (20.41) c/u Blackboard: "Growth of Democracy and the Industrial Revolution" (20.47) A modern young woman is living in a Scientific Age. (20.58) ms girl participating in demonstration (21.32) Botany. (21.34) teacher showing leaves and flowers of trees to class (22.17) c/u board listing elements of English teaching (22.31) gv's English class and letter writing, public speaking, reading; c/u girl reading Jane Eyre (23.50) c/u blackboard example of a bill (23.56) The aim is speed and accuracy in simple arithmetic related to everyday needs. (24.05) gv's outdoor mathematics class (24.41) And the hardest lesson of them all. Self-discipline the only kind of discipline which is "carried over" into ordinary life. The Dining Hall. (24.53) tilt down table settings (25.02) With a teacher in charge. (25.04) girls eat carefully as the teacher politely thanks serving staff (25.23) Without a teacher ? (25.26) girls bray with laughter, fight, put their elbows on the table and hunch over their soup (25.44) Now with a hostess in charge. (25.47) girl says grace (26.04) She knows she is responsible for good behaviour at the table. She wants their support. Among them is tomorrow's hostess. (26.22) c/u girl eating soup (26.29) But our ghosts don't approve. What was good enough for you should be good for everybody for all time? (26.39) ghosts look censorious (26.44) We thought so. (26.46) ghosts stand near girls' table (26.56) But who is this? (26.59) cave girl eats with her hands; ghost swoons (27.16) She agrees with you, though. This is all nonsense. Waste of time! (27.24) ms cave girl climbs onto the table, discarding cutlery (27.34) You don't agree? What is new is not necessarily foolish? That's what we think. So the experiment at Auchenharvie goes on. (27.50) c/u fish and chips, pies (27.55) girl changes a fuse, painting, ghosts watch approvingly as girls play netball, garden intercut c/u's food (29.31) We are only at the beginning, and we hope to do better and better still. The girls themselves know that they are helping to make a new kind of school. Suggestions from them are welcomed, and are often of great value. They feel they are pioneers. They are making history (30.04) ecs (30.14)