Raleigh bicycle factory, Nottingham, 1980/81
First year college project Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham. This was shot to “illustrate” or “interpret” a book by a local author, in this case “Saturday night and Sunday morning” by Alan Sillitoe (1958) that was partially set in a local Raleigh bike factory.
In 1979/80 when this was taken Raleigh were still alive and kicking as a local employer but changes were underway, soon the container ships from China were to bring competition.
The film of the book staring Albert Finny was to become a “kitchen sink” realist classic and was considered a bit outrageous at the time. One of the cleaners at college told me she saw it with her friends on its release in 1960/61, she said that there was great excitement to see their lives and city portrayed on the screen in an unvarnished way, I think she saw it more than once. Re-presented reality can be fascinating….