Epsom United Reformed Church

'Out of the Ashes'

Stills from the video

In July, 1961, the 1905 church building burnt down.  It was decided to try and make a ciné film of the church, with a bit of history, but concentrating on the rebuilding.

Using standard-8 film in a Bolex D8LA ciné camera, and both b/w and colour film stock, the scenes were photographed as work progressed.  The photography was mainly by my brother Geoff, with some help from me, and Geoff did all the editing.  I looked after the sound side, and recorded the commentary which was narrated by Ceri Lewis, the older son of the then minister, the Rev. D.E. Lewis.  This was mixed with copyright-free mood music, and transferred to sprocketed  ¼" tape.

Black-and-white film stock was used for the first part of the film, which is mainly of photographs and newspaper headlines, and of live shots within the church, where the extra speed of the material made filming possible in the dark interior of the burned-out building.  We then switched to colour film (as in 'The Wizard of Oz') for the rebuilding phase.

Showing of the film was quite an art.  A standard-8 projector was modified to bring a pair of wires from the motor control circuitry out to a variable resistor in a synchronizer, known as a 'Synchrodek'.  A flexible drive shaft was also fed from the projector to the 'Synchrodek' so that it would know how fast the projector was running.  The sprocketed sound tape was fed from the tape replay head to a toothed wheel on the Synchrodek, and then back onto the take-up spool of the tape-recorder.  This was set to run at 3¾" per second (9.5 cm/sec).

The Synchrodek looked at the speeds of the tape-recorder (taken as the standard) and the projector, and the difference between them actuated the slider on the variable resistor in the motor circuit controlling the speed of the projector.  Thus a fair degree of synchronization could be achieved between the film and its sound-track over the length of the film.

The film was not shown very often!

I am very indebted to my cousin, Clive Richardson, for his equipment, expertise and time in transferring this film to video.  I was getting concerned about the longevity of the equipment needed to show the film (and me remembering how to set it all up!), and the stability of the film itself, with all its splices.  This video has given the project a new lease of life, and is available to show to new generations of people one facet of the fascinating history of our church.

Copies of the video, which lasts some 35 minutes, may be ordered from me, price £8.00, with post and packing £2.00 extra.  Email me and I'll write to you.

Church Street Chapel
pre-1904

Congregational Church 1905-1961

The fire-damaged interior and organ

The burnt-out gallery

Scouts march to the Lecture Hall

Builders save the Foundation Stones

The Choir at the
Service of Dedication