Gaumont-British Instructional

Documentary about the building of ships at Barrow-in-Furness.

Story of how two youngsters round up crooks planning to blow up the British fleet off Gibraltar.

A dramatization to promote the Territorial Army.

A party of children take an eye-opening tour of John Brown's Shipyard in Clydebank.

In Australia, five children pursue horse thieves through the mountains.

A look at the Lake District and its famous poet.

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

Time-travel to a 1940s classroom with this exemplary educational film.

Poetic tribute to Mrs Turner's vegetable growing prowess, plus the delights of "wartime steaks".

Claustrophobic train-set comedy-thriller (produced by H.G. Wells son) with an ace reporter coming up against crooks intent on stealing a gold shipment on the Scotland to London express. A scatterbrained scientist, a gun-toting dame with revenge on her mind and a pair of eccentric spinster crime novelists – who steal the film – round out the motley band of passengers who cross the path of our intrepid hero as he tries to get his big scoop.

A teaching film about the human skeleton with animated medical illustrations as well as an actual skeleton with commentary. A man, naked to the waist, also demonstrates the relevant anatomy. X-ray cineradiography illustrates the movement of the arm.

A study of heredity in man, showing how both good and bad characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next.

The Case of The Missing Scene is a children's crime thriller that has been designed in the tradition of classic British children's films. A camera team takes pictures of rare birds from a hide when a poacher happens to get into the picture. The evidence (namely shot 63) disappears under mysterious circumstances. As always in these films, the case can only be solved with the help of a few bright children.

History - and natural history - filmed on location in Selborne, East Hampshire. This unusual edition of the long-running series Secrets of Life tells the story of the village's famous son, Rev Gilbert White, whose 1789 book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne is a classic of natural history. The film follows in his footsteps, with camera rather than quill in hand, focusing on nature but also taking in views of the village and its human inhabitants. The ingenious close coverage of bird, reptile and other wildlife was the stock-in-trade of the filmmakers at Gaumont-British Instructional, producers of the series. Under the direction of the redoubtable Mary Field, the behind-screen talent here includes legendary 'cine-biologists' Percy Smith and Oliver Pike. A tribute by one generation of pioneering naturalists to another, it's a quietly moving film in spite of its clipped English reserve - or perhaps partly because of it.

How to distinguish and deal with various insects that destroy vegetables.

A film based on a story by Leo Tolstoy about a cabinet maker, his wife and an angel punished by God.

In this dramatized warning to young women of the risks of venereal disease, Betty, a shop girl, pays a severe price for just one 'slip'.

Story of young boy and girl who help aircraft designer to outwit gang of spies trying to steal secret plans.

Part of the archive's Junior Biology series, this study of maize is aided by diagrammatic, time-lapse, and microscopic footage.

The history, development and uses of the oscillograph.