Y is for YouTube

This April we are once again blogging along with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Our team of one-place studiers will be sharing some of the treasures to be found for a one-place study, particularly around the theme of Visualisation, our Shared Endeavour for 2016.

Run a search for your place at YouTube lately? There's treasures to be found!

Anyone can upload a wee film to YouTube. Quality may vary - just because an amateur owns a video camera doesn't mean they know how to use it - but even footage that lacks something in professionalism may feature something of significance for your study or give you a feel for the topic. You may even find some professional footage there too!

If you find several clips of interest, you could make your own Playlist in YouTube and link to it from your one-place study website. If you don't find much, perhaps you could get out and about with a video camera or your cellphone and make some of your own to share.

Here's some examples I found for my own one-place study of Wing Buckinghamshire plus some other of our registered studies from Buckinghamshire:

Wing

• A series of walks around Wing and its hamlets, 5-10 mins each
• A look at the War Memorial
• People enjoying themselves at the 2008 Wing Village Carnival
• Various bellringers outings or extended shots with the pealing bells of All Saints Church
• Some drone footage over the ploughed fields of Wing (loved this one - what would my Wing ancestors have thought of this unconventional view of their work?)
• A 1960 British Pathé film of a celebrity cricket match played at Wing
• Footage from a bus reversing at Wing (apparently that's a "thing" for bus enthusiasts, and did feature some great shots of the houses lining the road).

Quainton

• You like trains? YouTube has trains! Videos taken on the train, coverage of steam rallies at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, black and white footage from British Pathé and Huntley Film Archives.
• You like hot air balloons? YouTube has hot air balloons! Several videos of balloons getting ready then majestically rising to give awesome aerial views of Quainton.
• You like posties? YouTube has a postie! Specifically one from Quainton that raised money by shaving his head - all his hair from neck up - in 2015.

Great & Little Kimble

• Modern-day Morris dancers outside the pub
• Visits to the church at both Great Kimble and Little Kimble
• Several walks involving Little Kimble
• The church meadow at Little Kimble is quintessential enough to warrant being the star of a stock video.

Bourne End

• Some great drone footage over the village and marina
• Modern-day future-historical events like the 2014 floods captured by several different cameras
• Modern retail, dining, service and agricultural experiences
• More trains.

As well as videos specific to your place, there's also videos from us here at the Society about the process of undertaking a one-place study and topics of interest to one-place studiers. Our monthly Hangouts On Air and our annual conferences can all be found on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR2g5-3-hnJ6MMDJS22tcLA.

Alex Coles