The John Jewell Film Archive
John Jewell was a Past President and a very significant figure in the history of the Road Runners Club, and also in the development of road-running in general. He was largely responsible for developing reliable and accurate modern techniques for measuring the length of road courses, which is a very difficult business.
Throughout his life John was an active supporter of athletics events, particularly road running, and he took his cine camera to many races around the world, building up a collection of significant historical interest. After his death the entire collection was passed to the UKA Museum at Birmingham, but the RRC paid for it all to be digitised to ensure its conservation and also make it available to the running community.
These films were recorded by on an 8-mm cine camera which had a tiny frame size, so the technical quality is not brilliant, although many figures can be recognised. The films were not recorded with sound.
These clips are available:
London to Brighton 1952 - the first London to Brighton Race
