A PLAQUE has been unveiled in recognition of two pioneers of the modern Cinema - from Blackburn.

Sagar J Mitchell and partner James Kenyon, were filming in Blackburn and the surrounding area at the turn of the century.

Their material was mainly newsreel footage of anything from workers leaving the gates of local factories, to Princess Louise, daughter of Queen Victoria, unveiling the statue of her mother in Blackburn Boulevard in 1905.

Among their hundreds of short films, the pair also filmed football matches, such as Blackburn Rovers v Aston Villa in 1899, Accrington's tramway in 1907 and even a mock-up of the Boer War - filmed on fields at Billinge!

Sagar Mitchell was a photographic apparatus manufacturer in Northgate, who went into partnership with James Kenyon, a cabinet maker, producing both equipment and films of local events.

Now, in recognition of their status as among the earliest filmmakers in the UK, a plaque has been unveiled on Northgate by Stephen Herbert, from the Museum of the Moving Image, London.

Blackburn optician and local film historian Peter Worden said: "In the last couple of years a lot of material has surfaced and we now know the titles of 400 films they made.

He added that the pair often economised to get as many people as possible on the films, which would be popular attractions at local fairs.

"They were very active, filming from Birmingham northwards, but by about 1912 they had stopped. The war then came along and after that Hollywood took over." The plaque, marking the original workshop, has been presented as part of the national 'Cinema 100' celebrations which mark a century of cinema.

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