RARE and controversial film footage of Salford in the 1960s will be screened tonight .
It captures the time when there were vast tracts of desolate wasteland following slum clearance.
The Changing Face of Salford was made between 1968 and 1970 by former Salford sociology lecturer Michael Goodger to record living conditions in Ordsall.
Originally meant as a teaching aid, but it became an important historical archive.
Mr Goodger said his intention was to 'examine the life, problems, hopes, and fears, of a typical community of slum dwellers in Salford'.
The first part, Life in the Slums, portrayed people just before and during the demolition. The second, Bloody Slums, is an historical overview of the district's growth and decay and the local authority's decision to clear 'unfit dwellings'.
The film polarised opinion at the time. Some were in favour of exposing the problems and those that considered its focus on slums cast a slur over the city's reputation.
The controversy escalated when Goodger's footage mirrored the scenes of urban poverty portrayed in the film Cathy Come Home (1966) and showed problems were not just confined to London.
In April 1971 Salford University's Council would not let the BBC and Granada show Goodger's films. There was eventually a private screening at the House of Commons in 1971.
The films chart the sweeping change of Ordsall's terraced streets through panoramic and close up shots of rooftops, smoking chimneys and dark alleys.
The grimness of living and working in the area is highlighted with children playing amid rubble, discarded household items, litter, and parked cars.
Ian Johnston, Salford University archivist, said: “The film is a powerful reminder of Salford's very recent history, and will bring back memories for anyone involved in the area at the time.
“It captures a period of profound social and physical change associated with housing clearance and urban renewal schemes.”
The film will be shown at the Kings Arms pub, in Bloom Street, Salford at 7.45pm. Entry is £3.
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I've seen the preview and it still looks the same.
"It captures the time when there were vast tracts of desolate wasteland...."
There still are in many parts of Salford. When people drive through Salford into Manchester along Chapel street and see crumbling and baosred up buildings, or along Liverpool Street which resembles Eastern Europe after the war , its difficult to see how much real progress has been made in some areas.
"It captures the time when there were vast tracts of desolate wasteland...."
You want to take a look around east Manchester if you like that sort of thing.
1968-1970 when the old back to back houses all over england breathed there last,slum clearance in every major town and city across the land,they killed communities,broke peoples hearts left them with nothing but memorys yearning for the past looking out of tower blocks waiting for death,it depresses me looking at old film of great times gone that will never return,wishing you could jump into the film and start living again like we did before,england now one big refugee camp no friendship no communitie dog eat dog world,after the slum clearance finished about 1974 the england we knew and loved died among the rubble
When they cleared my old area (Hulme, Greenheys, Moss Side) they just destroyed everything, along with the clearance of some buildings which warranted demolition. Many buildings could have been refurbished. The character and personality of the whole area was in each case lost forever, being replaced by impersonal buildings, grim tower blocks etc. I remember looking at the tower blocks going up and I commented back then that if you treat people with such little respect you cannot expect respect in return.
Manchester has a lousy record of conservation. Too many fine buildings, often of historic interest, have been bulldozed over the years. The "Manchester Arms" and Tommy Ducks are just two pubs that come to mind. And earlier, the old "Seven Stars" on Withy Grove, once said to be England`s oldest pub, was demolished. I believe that much income from tourism has been lost because of this empty-headed materialistic civic vandalism over many years.
I was 17 years old living in Ordsall in 1968. We knew our houses were slums and were happy to move. We moved to a 14th floor flat off Salford Precinct still there, opposite Mcdonalds. The day we moved in the lifts were broke and we carried furniture up the stairs but we were happy we had moved from the slums. The architects and planners conned every one from the council through to tenants. We were part of a social experiment which failed and Salford will be paying for it for the rest of a lot of peoples lives. We had been fooled into moving from an old slum to a modern one. After a few weeks of the novelty of a kitchen,toilet and bathroom we realised we were no better off and long term depression of a community became another ongoing experiment.
As desolate as a FC Utd's brain eh Free Red ? Pathetic
Though my earlier comments referred to my home area in Manchester, I will always have a soft spot for Salford. My wife lived in Broughton when we met, my late brother used to live near the docks and he and I used to sometimes drink in the Ship and other pubs. My wife and I used to go to the old Albert Park and my son and I used to play in a trio at the Dover, The great Ewan McColl wrote "Dirty Old Town" about Salford and his autobiography "Journeyman" is well worth reading.
An old mate of mine and I had an ambition to have a drink in every pub on Chapel Street. Sadly, we never realized it but we made a good start on it.
My wife learnt much of her catering knowledge at Salford Tech and the mate I mentioned went to school with the actor Albert Finney, whose dad had betting shops in Salford.
Salford, like Manchester, deserves better than the legalized devastation that clearance programmes caused.
I used to teach at the old Manchester College of Building and used to show these films (loaned from Salford University)during the 1970s. They were very evocative of both my own experiences of the Hanky Park area with its demolition in the early 1960s and knowledge of Ordsall from 1966 onwards.
The films certainly portrayed life as it was in Salford at that time. I still remember one of the film clips of Cross Lane market with a fair and the music of the Bee Gees.
These films should be made availble for everyone to see and have some reality about how hard life was, the conditions of many of the houses and the closeness of living.
john hall & adders, Co.Cavan
And all thanks to the social engineering and planning of the Labour Governments of that era we now have a society as depressingly described by john hall.
When all the decent people of old salford were moved out to Little Hulton, Irlam and Swinton where did those wild people who moved into new Salford come from ?
I used to live in Moss Side in Heywood Street, the house beside the bomb site. While I realise that progress has to be made, or then again does it have to be made? I lived from 1946-1962 in Heywood/Harpenden Street, and spent many happy times there. While there were 'funny' families, most of the people of that time, were caring and helpful. I left Manchester 40 years ago, and have only returned three times, however, I don't think that the so called 'progress' has progressed much. As for Salford, before I left it was a run down area, however, it has I know changed, and hopefully will progress to a much finer and greater degree than it has ever had.
salford is still as disgusting lol
Panzer 391, Salford, Probably the same place as Sir long Johns