Family reunited with 1937 holiday home movie

Simon MarksSouth of England
The Hasberry family were filmed enjoying their holiday in Hampshire

The family of a boy featured in a 1937 home movie that was discovered for sale online has been located and reunited with the film.

The black and white recording was made by Robert Hasberry on a family holiday at Naish Farm near Barton on Sea, Hampshire. He is seen with his wife Dorothy enjoying the countryside alongside their sons, Robert and Basil.

Many years later the film was lost during a house clearance.

Rosie Kennar, whose family established the holiday park, realised that it was a piece of social history.

She contacted the BBC to help trace the family in the images and when the film was broadcast three sisters came forward.

Hoburne Holiday Parks A woman, two boys and a dog, eating sandwiches by the coast in 1937. Hoburne Holiday Parks
In one of the scenes from the film Basil is featured enjoying a picnic on the cliffs at Naish Farm

Carol Williams, Angela Clilverd and Cathy Hipkiss are the daughters of the youngest boy in the film, Basil.

"It's amazing that it's such an old film but we can see it really clearly," said Williams.

"They thought that was a great way to spend a holiday, to get everybody together and do things."

The film was discovered for sale on eBay by a researcher helping create an archive for the holiday park, that has been run by the same family for more than a hundred years.

It is more than 12 minutes long and it features the Hasberry family with their dog.

In it, they can be seen visiting Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight, the boys are filmed on the beach making sandcastles and eating their meals on the veranda.

Three sisters descend the same path used by their father and uncle in 1937.
The three sisters follow in their father's footsteps at Naish Park.

"Grandpa was such a joker. He would have had them on hoots the whole time. Granny was a school mistress, so she taught them brilliantly," said Clilverd.

Hipkiss explained that her father had passed the holiday spirit on to his daughters.

"We'd go and have breakfast on the beach, even if it was pouring with rain and windy," she said.

Kennar was overjoyed to meet the family: "I think every family would agree that if you don't log the information you've got before your generation expires, then all of that is lost.

"We couldn't believe that we've found this family, it's just wonderful."

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