Film preview: The Great Estate

Article published: Monday, October 17th 2011

This Thursday sees the premiere of the Great Estate, a “top time travel drama” starring young people from Fallowfield and celebrating the heritage of one of the first ever council estates built in Manchester.

Made by and featuring young people from the Wilbraham Estate together with Whalley Range filmmakers REELmcr, the film follows the adventures of a group of modern-day kids transported back in time to August 25 1923, the date of Manchester City’s first match at Maine Road.

Along their journey into the past they meet a range of the first residents of the estate, built as part of Lloyd George’s “Homes Fit for Heroes” programme to provide decent housing for working people in the aftermath of the First World War.

REELmcr director Jacquie Carroll spoke of how the young people who created the film had gained “such a sense of pride at where they’re from” through researching the past history of their estate and interviewing many older residents, some of whom had lived there all their lives. Carroll explained how the estate was “the jewel in the crown” of post-war housing schemes which replaced pre-war slums, one which is “still going strong” 90 years on.

The 20^th Century saw a massive expansion of council house building after the first and second world wars, reaching a peak in the mid-1970s and providing homes for over a third of Britain. Although much of that stock has since been privatised by successive Labour and Conservative governments 18 per cent of the UK’s population still lives in social housing.

Over 50 young people living in the area aged from 13 to 21 worked on the film and an accompanying documentary, In Search of the Great Estate, researching their past with the aid of Salford’s Working Class Movement Library and the People’s History Museum in Manchester. “Most of the group who star in the film had no idea about the heritage of their estate and how important it is”, said Carroll. “But as part of the creation of the film, they’ve been researching the Wilbraham Estate’s past, including interviewing older residents, and I think it’s really opened their eyes.”

“We need to celebrate working class people” she argued, denouncing the “patronising ” and “appalling” ways in which she said many are still portrayed and noting how “the riots seemed to be blamed on people in council housing” in reference to the much-publicised threats to evict social housing tenants convicted in August’s disturbances and their families from their homes.

“The word ‘chav’ really annoys me”, Carroll added, noting how “working people fought for health and education” in battles she believed are often forgotten. “You learn about Kings and Queens but you’re not taught about your social history.”

Richard Goulding

The Great Estate will premiere on 20 October, 7pm at the Whitworth Art Gallery and is sponsored by South Manchester Housing Trust and the Heritage Lottery fund.

Email info@reelmcr.co.uk or call 0161 882 2226 to book your free tickets! 

Tweet

More: Culture, Manchester, Screen

Comments

1. Did Jacquie Carroll do GCSE history?

   There’s quite a lot about Britain’s social history and not much about kings and queens.

   Comment by simon on October 18, 2011 at 4:28 pm

2. Simon – I did a history GCSE just under 10 years ago and there was very little on social history as a matter of fact. We had a cursory glance at Northern Ireland and studied child labour in Victorian Britain but little else apart from that … And most pupils won’t even get those morsels social history that are on offer as history is an optional GCSE. As for the rest (Years 7-9) it is the usual jingoistic fare of WWII (by which I mean the Nazis to obsessive detail), King Henry VIII, 1066 and the occasional Eurocentric view of the ‘discoveries’ … ad nauseam

   Comment by Michael Pooler on October 20, 2011 at 10:07 pm

3. Well, some people learn history, if not at school.

   This article is patronising rubbish and assumes that the proles can only learn about history if they are taught, either in school or by clever people Carroll.

   The truth is they have libraries and the internet like eveyone else, but can’t be bothered to use the former and use the latter for shopping, ‘social media’ and porn.

   Comment by simon on October 21, 2011 at 10:15 pm

4. i went to watch this wonderful film , and would like to thank jackie and all who were involved in the makeing of it . It informed me of things i never new of an estate i have lived on most of my life. plus it has shown people that children given the right incentive can enjoy giving and receiving pleasure in being involved in projects like this. once again thank to you all.

   Comment by A DUNNE on October 25, 2011 at 4:23 pm

The comments are closed.