This marvellous film was made by Leeds iron founder Frederick Dyson, using a 16mm Victor triple lenses turret cine camera. Frederick made a number of films, taking care to film either good vistas or close ups – not that this was always possible, as this film shows. This film falls into two equal halves, with the first in Roundhay Park and the second in Golden Acre Park. The first past of the film makes an interesting comparison with that Betty and Cyril Ramsden’s film of this event made in 1951 – see Children’s Day in Leeds and the Context for this for more on these events. Frederick Dyson’s son, Fredrick Malcolm, has provided an extremely detailed guide and commentary to the film, indicating changes that have been made since it was made – this is available to view at the YFA.

 

What makes this film was fascinating, and perhaps unique, is the footage of the amusement park, in Golden Acre Park, opened in 1932 by the Thompson family – who also made silent films and were instrumental in building a housing development in North East Leeds (some of his houses can be seen in the film). This was based on the Coney Island theme park in South Brooklyn, New York. It was an ambitious park, with features that were perhaps unique for its time in England. A similar miniature railway opened on the North Bay in Scarborough just before in 1931.

 

Unfortunately, the park closed soon after this a film was made just before the outbreak of war. Although it was popular with people looking for entertainment, its distance from more populated areas meant that is wasn’t profitable enough. It was taken over by the City Council in 1945. Only come the once a year travelling fairs would have been more affordable for the low standard of living of the working class in the 1930s. In fact Coney Island itself suffered a similar fate, going into decline and disrepair after the Second World War – the great novelist Joseph Heller who was brought up there writes about it in Closing Time.  

 

But other aspects of the park, like the ‘witch’s hat’ and the roundabout could be found in parks across the country well into the 1980s. The disappearance of these will be felt by those who spent many hours on these kinds of rides, attempting to push them to their limits! In fact many of the activities seen in the film, both in the park and the swimming pool, would be seen today as too dangerous – see the Context for Archbishop Holgate School (1957) for more on the changing attitudes to health and safety for children.

 

Today both Roundhay Park and Golden Acre Park are greatly appreciated by those who use them, with the latter especially getting rave reviews on the internet. But whatever the Park now offers as an open space with woodland, it seems a shame that Leeds’ own Coney Island shone very briefly, in an age that could not sustain it.

 

 

Tony Shelton, Leeds' Golden Acres The History Of A Park And Its People, Age Concern, Leeds, 2000.