These nearly 3000 items from the BBC Archive have been made freely available for personal, educational, and research use, licensed under the terms of the RemArc licence.
The material is searchable, can be browsed by ‘Theme’ or ‘Decade’, and filtered by media type.
You can download individual items from the collection, or use the search and filtering to produce your own downloadable collections.
Notes on downloading:
- Downloading video items will include both the video files and a ‘poster image’ for each video
- Downloading audio items will include both the audio files and a ‘poster image’ for each audio item, if available
- Downloading image items will just include the images
- All downloads will include a CSV file containing the metadata for the selected media items
Search Results
2977 results found
British Summer Holidays 3
The ending of petrol rationing just before Whitsun in 1950 helped many reach the coast & countryside for the Bank Holiday.
5 MB
1950s, leisure, video
British Summer Holidays 4
The ending of petrol rationing just before Whitsun in 1950 helped many reach the coast & countryside for the Bank Holiday.
6 MB
1950s, leisure, video
Boat Race
A May Week boat race at Cambridge in 1950, between Oxford & Cambridge Unions, with both crews in formal dress. Only 2 experienced oarsmen were allowed in each crew - hence the erratic rowing. The race was a dead heat.
11 MB
1950s, leisure, video
Wheelbarrow Race
Wheelbarrow Race, 1950
126 KB
1950s, childhood, images
Swimming Gala
National Swimming Championships produced new champions & proved we have an abundance of junior talent - in particular 14 yr old Margaret McDowall who won both the junior & senior titles in her event. 1950
18 MB
1950s, sport, video
Traffic
In 1950, the first road census for 11 years took place to help in planning road improvements. AA & RAC had a joint road sign scheme to help guide motorists through London.
17 MB
1950s, people, video
Air Show
The 1950 Farnborough Air Show. Highlights included the jets & the mid -air refueling demonstration.
24 MB
1960s, events, video
Fashion
In 1950, platform-soled shoes were still fashionable, and black & white are the dominating colours for Autumn hats.
20 MB
1950s, people, video
Fashion Hats
Platform-soled shoes are still fashionable, black & white are the dominating colours for Autumn hats. 1950
22 MB
1950s, people, video
Princess Anne Baby
Princess Anne, with her brother Prince Charles, was taken by train to Balmoral for a late summer holiday in 1950.
11 MB
1960s, events, video
London Gas Strike
An unofficial strike by maintenance workers at North Thames Gas in 1950 resulted in pressure reductions in an area stretching from Windsor to Southend. Cooking times have to be increased by half as much to take into account the low pressure
11 MB
1950s, people, video
Goodwood Race
Reg Parnell wins the Goodwood trophy in 1950
20 MB
1950s, sport, video
