(2021)

The flood waters at Welney Wash were at their peak – the depth of water on the road was 1.31 metres / 52 inches.

After scenes in Welney village, the film moves along the New Bedford River to the Denver Complex (specifically Denver Lock) before finishing with a flurry of snow across an open Fen landscape at Ten Mile Bank.

Capturing this in Black & White really conveys the bleakness of Winter but it also has an incredible ability to provide relief from itself and celebrate the evident hints of Spring coming.

The picture exhibits many imperfections that, if captured with modern recording equipment, would be entirely unacceptable by today’s video standards – featuring a hair in the gate, a prominent vertical scratch, dirty lens and a picture that is mostly underexposed; it makes for a wonderfully authentic, perfectly imperfect example of vintage filmmaking.

The Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race came to the Fens in 2021 for only the 2nd time in it’s 164 year history; the first time being 1944.

Despite this being a ‘closed event’ with no public access, there was no question … we just had to be there to capture the historic moment.

The event organisers initially declined our request to attend but Drew ultimately managed to pursuade them otherwise and we were allocated our own, dedicated spot along the River Great Ouse from which to film the crews as they came full-throttle towards the finish line.

Our perspective was unique – no other photographer or journalist had the vantage point we did!

During the editing process we were faithful to our desire for this to be more of a historical document of the event captured from our unique viewpoint rather than just presenting ‘the best bits’. As such, we’ve preserved as much film material as possible with only a very small amount of it ending up on the cutting room floor.

This film was made possible with sponsorship by Ely Logistics, Isle of Ely Rowing Club and Isle of Pets Ltd along with donations from the following individuals: Breda Walton, Sara Crampton, Nigel Starnes, Stephen Gurney, H Edwards, Simon Judge, Steven Waller, Daniel Betson and Mark Haynes.

Many thanks to those noted above and in particular to the Boat Race organisers who allowed us access in order to capture this historic event on film.

To use up the remaining unexposed film left over from The Boat Race, we re-visited Wicken Fen and took in some of the views to be had along Sedge Fen Boardwalk.

Wicken Fen was the first nature reserve to be adopted into the National Trust back in 1899 and is home to a historic windpump which was moved to the site from Adventurers’ Fen in 1956.

With the assistance of Brian Pearce (Railworld Wildlife Haven), we had a great vantage point from which to see the Flying Scotsman as she arrived into Peterborough Train Station on Celebrate the Fens Day.

The plan was to film the famous locomotive as it came by and then move to Railworld to finish the remainder of film. Unfortunately we encountered technical difficulties early in the shoot once we got to Railworld so filming had to be aborted.

Upon investigation, when opening the camera casing (in less than complete darkness) we found ‘film spaghetti’ inside as it had jammed in the mechanism after passing through the gate. Convinced we’d failed to capture or lost that section of film, we manually wound it onto the take-up spool ahead of re-testing the camera.

Following the 2nd test (which was successful), we had the film developed and scanned – imagine our surprise when we saw that not only had we captured the Flying Scotsman but the footage had survived and was almost completely intact!

This is the remainder of our 16mm test reel with the Krasnogorsk-3 filmed across the Fens on the lead up to Remembrance Day.

We treated this film like an old-fashioned travelogue; stopping here and there to capture a shot or two whilst on a short round trip taking us about 10 miles outside of Ely.

The striking thing about this one is just how well the vibrant, autumnal colours really shine through and how versatile the film stock we were using was – extraordinary latitude in both the highlights and shadows.

Special thanks to the following for their generosity in helping to fund this film: Breda Walton, Stephen Gurney, Sara Crampton, Susan Rowell, Jane Frost and Tim Frost.

An incredibly atmospheric and thought-provoking final entry to our 2021 film series, “Memento Mori” is a lamenting farewell to an iconic local landmark in the Fens, Mepal Outdoor Centre.

The secrecy surrounding this local asset was unprecedented with the general public kept in the dark until crematorium plans were at an advanced stage despite being lead to believe that efforts were ongoing to reopen the centre in the interest of leisure and recreation.

The fate of Mepal Outdoor Centre was clearly sealed and the views of local communities irrelevant – East Cambridgeshire District Council wanted a Crematorium on this site and nothing would deter them.

In December 2021, the outdoor centre was demolished despite the council’s proposal for a crematorium not having officially been granted approval or planning permission.

The film was initially titled “The Penultimate Hour” but it felt a little ‘on the nose’ so we renamed it “Memento Mori” (Latin for “Remember you must die”).

The new title encapsulates the essence of this film in a poetic double entendre.

The powers that be were determined to see the death of the buildings on this site and the Latin phrase also references the very business of a crematoria … death.

We’re all moving ever closer to it (death) but quality of life and the benefits to be had from a centre of recreation and leisure in an area of natural beauty are deemed less important and less profitable than disposing of what remains of us when we pass.

Many scenes are open to interpretation by the viewer – where one may perceive ugliness, beauty can be found by another.

But, what cannot be overlooked is the abandonment and neglect at the hands of ECDC.

Ultimately we celebrate a venue that was enjoyed by so many since the 1980s and one which played host even after it officially closed it’s doors back in 2017 – most notably the Christmas Day rave in 2018 when 200+ party goers descended upon the venue.

“Dust to Dust”