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The job of a bricklayer in 1940s Britain.
A postman is walking along a residential street of terraced houses. He enters a front gate with his mail sack over his shoulder and meets a man coming out the front door. The man ignores the postman leaving the postie to put the mail through the letter box. The man walks onto the street and meets a milk man who is delivering to the house next door. The milkman's horse and cart was visible in the street at the start of the scene. Double decker bus slows at a bus stop and a man jumps off the platform at the back of the bus. The man the film is following is a builder. He is filmed putting his flat cap on as he crosses a residential road heading to work. View of a partially constructed block of flats. Line of construction workers all arriving at the site for work, some collecting tools from a shed. Man climbs a wooden ladder holding his level and plumb rule and sets to work as a bricklayer. He takes his tools out of his bag, a hammer, trowel, chisel, bolster. Mortar is poured into a wheelbarrow and wheeled to a hoist or lift along with a stack of bricks. The hoist raises the materials and labourers remove them at the top. The bricklayer builds a wall, first laying out his coursing line to ensure the wall is level. Bricklayers at work, laying bricks, checking levels, wiping mortar with their trowels. Site foreman meets with bricklayer and measures for a window in the wall that is being built. Architect's plans. Meeting in the site office to discuss design drawings. Bricklayer forms a wall around a circular window. Film shows different wall patterns for laying bricks. More footage of walls being laid. Man blows a sharp whistle. Tea break. Tradesmen put down their tools and proceed down the ladder. Workers in site canteen having tea break. Two young boys drink a cuppa and eat sandwiches. They are apprentices, learning the trade. Back at work the young apprentices work alongside a qualified bricklayer. The two boys pack up their tools and leave the site. View of young lads walking up some steps and entering a building. In a classroom apprentices learn the theory of their trades. Teacher stands at the blackboard pointing to technical diagrams drawing on the board. Back at construction site building continues. Cloudy dark sky. Rain falling as builders stand under cover waiting for it to stop. The foreman takes some men indoors to complete jobs in the dry. Laying bricks under a staircase. Lots of bricklayers all working on their allocated wall at the top storey of the building site. Scaffolders erecting additional scaffolding. Bricklayer removes selected bricks in his wall in order to insert air vents. Two suited men with briefcases get out of a car, possibly a Humber Hawk, as the building site. Workers queue up at an office window to collect their weekly pay. Envelope of money handed through the window. A worker looks in his wages envelope, removes the cash and counts it before walking off. Man leaves his house with his wife and son. Wife carries a shopping basket, which she hands to her son. High street shops. Family looking at goods in a window as husband smilingly chats with his wife.
Huntley Film Archives is a film library holding tens of thousands of films. The large majority of the films are documentaries. Films cover a wide range of subjects and production dates range from the 1890’s to the 2020’s. As with all libraries we make no judgement on the content of our holdings and make them available for educational purposes for all to see. Films may have content or express opinions some may think inappropriate or offensive, but it is not the work of a library to censor educational resources. Films should be viewed with historical objectivity and within a context relevant to the times in which they were produced