Skiving from work to share two old Oban videos (1926 and 1955) with you

From BFIfilms

Oban is still very much a working harbour. Among other things (women processing herring, for example), the clip features a Clyde puffer. When the clip was made, my dad wasn't even born yet. Last May he and I enjoyed a tour of the Reaper, a herring boat that would have come into Oban, laden with fish, in the old days. On another occasion I was able to explore a restored specimen of the old west-coast workhorse called the Clyde puffer.

"The extract comes from Claude Friese-Greene's 'The Open Road' - originally filmed in 1925/6 and now re-edited and digitally restored by the BFI National Archive. Britain seen in colour for the first time was heralded as a great technical advance for the cinema audience - now we can view a much improved image, but one which still stays true to the principles of the colour process."

And while I'm at it, here's another one showing Oban in 1955. I was three that summer, had a one-year-old brother, and we lived nowhere near Oban. Sadly, I cannot embed the clip here, so please click on the link.