Bamforth and Co Ltd - Station Road - geograph

Bamforth & Co Ltd was a publishing, film and illustration company based in

Holmfirth Holmfirth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England, on the A635 and A6024 in the Holme Valley, at the confluence of the River Holme and Ribble, south of Huddersfield and west of Barnsley. It mostly consist ...

, West Yorkshire, England.

History

Bamforth & Co Ltd was started in 1870 by James Bamforth, a

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

photographer in

, West Yorkshire. In 1883 he began to specialise in making

lantern slides The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that used pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lenses, and a light source. Because a sin ...

. In 1898 the company started making silent monochrome films with the Riley Brothers of

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, West Yorkshire, who had been making films since 1896. James Bamforth's expertise with lantern slides proved invaluable in the film making. They used a camera developed by Bradford cine inventor Cecil Wray. This partnership with Riley and Bamforth, known as "RAB Films" lasted until 1900. Though film production was restarted in 1913 it was again stopped in 1915, when the film production was changed to the newly named Holmfirth Producing Company, which quickly moved operations to London. The last Holmfirth film, ''Meg o' the Woods'', emerged in February 1918. In 1910 Bamforth & Co Ltd started making illustrated 'saucy'

seaside postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s which, like its films, were exported worldwide for sale. The company was bought out by the Dennis Printing Company, of

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

during the early 1980s. Following the demise of Dennis the Bamforth & Co name, with postcards rights to over 50,000 designs, were purchased by Ian Wallace in 2001. Although the Bamforth company was best known in the United Kingdom for producing a wide range of topographical and tourist postcards as well as 'saucy' seaside postcards, what is less well known was their rich history of filmmaking. Drawing heavily on their work with magic lantern cinema, the company began making monochrome films in 1898. The popularity of these films, in particular those featuring a character named Winky, led to a film industry in West Yorkshire which for a time surpassed that of

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

in terms of productivity and originality. It is also believed the company invented

film editing Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

with the release in 1899 of ''The Kiss in the Tunnel''. In September 2010, on the 100th anniversary of the original launch of the postcards, the new owner Ian Wallace relaunched the publication and sale of the postcards, with the Jane Evans Licensing Consultancy. Currently Mercury Print & Packaging, in

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

has the exclusive right to reprint and distribute Bamforth's at Mercury Print
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Film titles

1898 – 1900

1913–1915

References

External links

Bamforth & Co Ltd Illustrators and PublishersRemembering Bamforth & Co. Ltd
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bamforth and Co Ltd Companies based in Leeds Postcard publishers Film production companies of the United Kingdom English printers