Last Royal Highland Show At Kelso, 1952 - Foot & Mouth Year

This footage features the last Royal Highland Show to be held in Kelso, in 1952, before it moved to its permanent home at Ingliston in Edinburgh in 1960.

This show is particularly notable, as unfortunately foot & mouth made a huge impact, with no cloven-hoofed animals present - ironic, as there had been a record entry of livestock.

The absence of stock reduced the gate to78,392, which contributed to a loss of £2,930. Two temporary bridges were specially built over the Tweed, to allow spectators access to the show ground.

I have split the footage into two sections - the preparation of the site and surrounding area, and footage from when the show was open to the public.

My mum recalls going down to the site with my grandad, as he was getting the George Henderson stand ready, and he having to prove he was an exhibitor by opening the boot of his car, which was full of stuff for the stand.

They also made everyone walk through disinfectant troughs when coming over the two temporary bridges to stop any possible spread of foot & mouth.

This footage was quite a challenge. After I had split the original footage into individual scenes (its easier to enhance the footage by doing this), there were 74 individual pieces of footage to deal with.

Having said that, I very much enjoyed putting this footage together, and it tied in with a new sharpening technique I have learned...much better results.

The resolution was only 720 x 576, there was a lot of grain and noise, and the entire footage had a sepia cast throughout. It has been restored to black & white, upscaled, sharpened and denoised.

This cine footage is from the personal archive of T.S Henderson, formerly of George Henderson & Co, Kelso.

It has been digitally restored by his grandson.

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Email: hendersonarchive@icloud.com
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Видео Last Royal Highland Show At Kelso, 1952 - Foot & Mouth Year канала T.S Henderson Cine Film Archive