Noel Drewe Collection
Scope and Contents
A large collection of films entitled Circusama containing amateur and professional films on the themes of circus, performing animals and zoos, and edited clips from commercial Western and comedy films. The films are in a variety of formats including 8mm, Super8, 9.5mm and 16mm and contain related correspondence and notes. This collection also contains some sound reels mainly of fairground music.
Dates
- Creation: c1930 - 1990
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
VHS Items are available to view by appointment in the NFCA reading room. Other film formats are not available to be viewed. Film viewing equipment must be booked prior to visit
Conditions Governing Use
Copies may be supplied or produced at the discretion of National Fairground and Circus Archive, subject to copyright law and condition of the material
Biographical / Historical
Noel Drewe was not only a circus historian and collector but he was also an avid film enthusiast with a keen flair for filmmaking. What makes this collection so unique aside from the scope and quality of the material is the accompanying notes he made, spanning several decades of passionate collection and observations. These commonly included both his own reaction to the film and any press information he gathered relating to the material.
His collection consists of an array of both amateur and professional moving image material on a multitude of formats. Noel made several of the films with his father Frank, dating as far back as 1937. These short films shot on 8mm feature an eclectic mix of fairground experiences, illustrating the pleasures of Battersea fun fair, Southend-on-Sea, Kent seaside, Folkstone, Clacton and Southsea on Kodachrome colour film stock.
Extent
33 Box(es) (326 films, 13 audio reels)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Catalogued according to type
Existence and Location of Copies
Audio tape 178E10.2 digitised as part of the British Library's Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project.
Subject
- Bertram Mills Circus (1920 - 1967) (Organisation)
- Olympia London (Established 1886) (Organisation)
- Belle Vue (1836 - 1982) (Organisation)
- Merchant, Billy (Little Billy), 1919 - 2001 (Person)
- Lord George Sanger Circus (Established c1880) (Organisation)
- Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (1919 - 2017) (Organisation)
- Beatty, Clyde, 1903 - 1965 (Person)
- Bobby Robert's Super Circus (1993 - 2011) (Organisation)
Cultural context
Occupation
Topical
- Status
- In Progress
- Author
- Created by Jane Donaldson, updated by Arantza Barrutia on Fiding Aid Date field date
- Date
- 24 February 2015
- Description rules
- International Standard for Archival Description - General
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the National Fairground and Circus Archive Repository
The University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
0114 222 7231
lib-special@sheffield.ac.uk