Bamforth & Co Ltd

Bamforth & Co Ltd is a publishing, film and illustration company based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

History
Bamforth and Company, Ltd.

Bamforth & Co Ltd was started in 1870 by James Bamforth, a portrait photographer in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. In 1883 he began to specialise in making lantern slides.[1] During 1898 'Bamforth & Co. Ltd' started making silent monochrome films with the Riley Brothers of Bradford, 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.[2] 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 new 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 postcards which, like his films, were exported worldwide for sale. The company was bought out by the Dennis Printing Company, in Scarborough during the early 1980s. Following the demise of Dennis the 'Bamforth & Co' name and 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 cards, 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 in terms of productivity and originality. It is also believed the company invented film editing with the release in 1899 of The Kiss in the Tunnel.

In September 2010, on the 100th anniversary of the original launch of the postcards, the new owner Ian Wallace has relaunched the publication and sale of the postcards, with the Jane Evans Licensing Consultancy.[3] Currently Mercury Print & Packaging, in Leeds have been granted the exclusive right to reprint and distribute [4]

Film titles

1898 – 1900
  • Weary Willie (1898)[5]
  • The Tramp and the Baby's Bottle (1899)[6]
  • The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899)[7]
  • Catching the Milk Thief (1899)[8]
  • Women's Rights (1899)[9]
  • The Would-Be Conjuror (1900)[10]
  • Lover Kisses Husband (1900)[11]

1913–1915
  • Finding His Counterpart (1913)
  • Winky As A Suffragette (1914)
  • Winky – Bigamist (1914)
  • Winky Diddles The Hawker (1914)
  • Winky Gets "Puffed Up" (1914)
  • Winky Goes Camping (1914)
  • Winky Goes to the Front (1914)
  • Winky's Carving Knife (1914)
  • Winky's Fireworks (1914)
  • Winky's Invisible Ink (1914)
  • Winky's Lifeboat (1914)
  • Winky's Next Door Neighbour (1914)
  • Winky Takes To Farming (1914)
  • Winky, The Park Policeman (1914)
  • Winky Waggles The Wicked Widow (1914)
  • Winky's "Week-End" (1914)
  • Winky And The "Dwarf (?)" (1914)
  • The Mighty Atom (1914)
  • Winky Learns A Lesson in Honesty (1914)
  • Winky's Ruse (1914)
  • Jessie (1914)
  • The Mystic Glove (1914)
  • Itching Powder (1914)
  • Birds of a Feather Plot Together (1914)
  • How Winky Fought for a Bride (1914)
  • Kill That Fly! (1914)
  • The Muddletown Fire Brigade (1914)
  • Peppering His Own Porridge (1914)
  • Papa's Little Weakness (1914)
  • Who's Which? (1914)
  • Winky and the Cannibal Chief (1914)
  • Winky and the Gorgonzola Cheese (1914)
  • Winky and the Leopard (1914)
  • Winky Becomes A Family Man (1914)
  • Winky Causes A Small-Pox Panic (1914)
  • Winky Dons The Petticoats (1914)
  • Winky Gets Spotted (1914)
  • Winky Goes Spy Catching (1914)
  • Winky Is Accused of An 'Orrible Crime (1914)
  • Winky's Cat (1914)
  • Winky's Guilty Conscience (1914)
  • Winky's Jealousy (1914)
  • Winky's Mother-In-Law (1914)
  • Winky's Strategem (1914)
  • Winky Tries Chicken Raising (1914)
  • Winky Wins (1914)
  • War Cartoons (1914)
  • Sharps And Flats (1915)
  • Always Tell Your Husband (1915)
  • And That's How The Row Began (1915)
  • Artful, Not 'Alf (1915)
  • A Bachelor's Babies (1915)
  • Bertie's Holiday (1915)
  • A Bid for a Bounty (1915)
  • Bumble's Blunder (1915)
  • Cod-Fish And Aloes (1915)
  • A Comedy of Errors (1915)
  • The Counterfeit Cowboy (1915)
  • Culture And Kultur in Belgium (1915)
  • Dr. Violet Dearing (1915)
  • Don't Jump To Conclusions (1915)
  • Ever Been Had? (1915)
  • Foul Play (1915)
  • Getting on His Nerves (1915)
  • A Good Little Pal (1915)
  • The Green-Eyed Monster (1915)
  • Have Some More Meat? (1915)
  • Hilda Routs The Enemy (1915)
  • Hilda's Busy Day (1915)
  • Igh Art (1915)
  • Is America Ready (1915)
  • Lily's Birthday (1915)
  • Lily, Tomboy (1915)
  • Love and a Legacy (1915)
  • Love And Cameras (1915)
  • Mamma's D.E.A.R. (1915)
  • The Man in Possession (1915)
  • Monty's Monocle (1915)
  • Moonstruck (1915)
  • A Mushroom Stew (1915)
  • Never Despair (1915)
  • No Fool Like An Old Fool (1915)
  • Oh! My! (1915)
  • Once Upon A Time (1915)
  • One on Irey (1915)
  • A Pair of Dummies (1915)
  • Pair of Stars (1915)
  • Peace at Any Price (1915)
  • Pin Pricks (1915)
  • Putting on the Fluence (1915)
  • Papa Scores (1915)
  • Scottie and the Frogs (1915)
  • Scottie Loves Ice Cream (1915)
  • Scottie's Day Out (1915)
  • Scottie Turns The Handle (1915)
  • The Tell-Tale Crystal Globe (1915)
  • That's Done It ! (1915)
  • Tommy's Freezing Spray (1915)
  • Troubles of a Hypochrondiac (1915)
  • Venus and the Knuts (1915)
  • What A Find (1915)
  • What A Picnic (1915)
  • What Scottie Heard (1915)
  • What's in a Name (1915)
  • What The – ? (1915)
  • The White Hand (1915)
  • White Star (1915)
  • Who Were You With Last Night (1915)
  • Winky: Photographer (1915)
  • Winky's Blue Diamond (1915)
  • Winky, The Long And Short Of It (1915)
  • Won By A Fluke (1915)
  • There's Hair ! (1915)
  • Paula (1915)
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See also

Original Black & White film clips

References
  1. Screen Online – James Bamforth
  2. Yorkshire Film archives online Archived 25 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Huddersfield Examiner online – Holmfirth's Bamforth's saucy seaside postcards to be relaunched today on 100th anniversary
  4. Bamforth's at Mercury Print
  5. BFI Screen Online – Wearie Willie (1898)
  6. BFI Screen online – The Tramp And The Babys Bottle (1899)
  7. BFI Screen online – Kiss In The Tunnel (1899)
  8. BFI Screen online – Catching The Milk Thief 1899
  9. BFI Screen online – Women's Rights (1899)
  10. BFI Screen online – The Would-Be Conjuror (1900)
  11. BFI Screen online – Lover Kisses Husband 1900
  12. BFI Screen online – Leap Frog 1900
  13. BFI Screen online – Boy's Cricket Match And Fight 1900
  14. BFI Screen online – Boys Sliding 1900
  15. BFI Screen online – The Biter Bit 1900
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