Moving pictures were already a popular entertainment in Morecambe by 1901, and this film was apparently a hit when shown alongside other local films, including Mitchell and Kenyon's Panoramic View of the Morecambe Sea Front, at the Lancashire resort's Winter Gardens. "Needless to say these pictures are followed with intense interest," said a Morecambe Visitor reporter who was in the audience.

Like several other films in the Mitchell & Kenyon collection, this film was shot not by Mitchell & Kenyon themselves but by Thomas-Edison Pictures, the company run by flamboyant showman and regular M&K collaborator AD Thomas. The Church Lads' Brigade was formed in 1891, inspired by the Boys' Brigade (formed eight years earlier). Similar youth organisations, typically with a quasi-military ethos, were on the increase during the Edwardian period, which also saw the rise of the Girls' Brigade and the Scouts movements.

Source: BFI

M&K 248: Main (replacement) title (00.08). Parade of the Boy's Brigade watched by a line of people. Uniform consists of pill-box hat with a badge/insignia and strap under the chin, belts (white gloves tucked in the belt), white sash across body. Some adult Brigade officers in uniform marching by the side (00.24). Shot of spectators who raise hats and wave to camera (00.40).The boys do drill which consists of stretching and bending. Some boys have trouble keeping their hats on when bending. Two of them let the hats deliberately fall, smile and continue the drill (2.48). Spectators cheering and waving (3.00mins). M&K 249: Scenes of the boys marching, again lots of shots of spectators waving and cheering. (Shotlist)

Part of the M&K Collection but shot and exhibited by A. D. Thomas and his film crew. Mitchell and Kenyon may have printed and processed film for him. Relates to M&K 249. Can befound on DVD "Electric Edwardians: The Films of M&K" (2005). Suggested order 248, 249.

Source: BFI