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. It is located south of Huddersfield and west of Barnsley; the boundary of the Peak District National Park is to the south-west. The town is sited on t ...

, West Yorkshire, England.

History

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

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

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 uses pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...

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

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, 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. In some places, one can send a postcard ...

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, sub ...

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. 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 in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

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