An antique camera find exposes a mystery about 70 year old pictures

Here’s an interesting entry for Film Friday: Oliver Barnes, a 20-year-old antique camera fan, was in a Salisbury antique shop when he discovered a bag hiding in the corner. Inside the bag was a No1 Pocket Kodak, a camera that went into production in the 1920s. That would be an exciting enough find, but once he worked out how to open the camera, he discovered film inside, as the BBC reports.

“I was in complete shock; I was so worried I had exposed the film because they are very, very light sensitive,” he said.”It’s, like, 100 years old, so I wasn’t expecting the film to come out of it.”

Some of the photos show a crowd of people and television crew outside the Portcullis Hotel in Chipping Sodbury. Photo: Unknown / Oliver Barnes

The No. 1 Pocket Kodak used 6x9cm negatives, which resulted in a decent level of detail from simple contact prints for photographers at the time. Of course, developing such negatives today isn’t as straightforward as it used to be. Barnes brought the negatives to Fujifilm Salisbury Photo Centre, where Ian Scott helped narrow down some of the details related to the images. Scott knew the film inside the camera wasn’t produced until the late 1950s, providing a more precise timeline of when the images could have been taken.

Given the age of the negatives, it was surprising how well they turned out. “They’re really good quality for how old they are; I wasn’t really expecting anything,” said Barnes. The developed images revealed more mysteries, however. Some of the images show an event of some sort. Barnes did some sleuthing and figured out the photo was taken from the upper floor of a building overlooking the Portcullis Hotel and the war memorial in Chipping Sodbury. There appears to be a television crew on the edge of the frame.

The images have sparked lots of interest locally in an attempt to identify the event. “It’s caused quite a fuss on social media round here. It got shared literally everywhere,” said local photographer Richard McDonough. “We’ve had all sorts of people coming up with speculation and different ideas of what it might be.” Some have guessed a wedding, while others have proposed an event related to the American Army, which was posted nearby during WWII. “There are so many different scenarios,” said tourist center volunteer Barry Townsend.

This photo is believed to be of two students on the Swilcan Bridge at the University of St. Andrews, though the two men have not been identified. Photo: Unknown / Oliver Barnes

Another image shows two young men on a bridge who have not been identified yet. However, they are assumed to be two University of St. Andrews students. Barnes and others searching for answers hope that sharing the images may spark someone’s memory. Even if the details remain a mystery, it certainly is a fun find to stumble on. It’s also a good reminder to be careful with how you open thrifted film cameras; you never know what gems you may find inside.

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