Winston John Ponting: A father, a husband, a mayor, a chemist, and a filmmaker

In early 2023 Wessex Film and Sound Archive (WFSA) was approached by volunteers from a local museum with a box of films. On the surface this crowded cardboard box appeared to contain only commercial prints – a cornucopia of Pathé reels with titles including Churchill in Africa, In the Footsteps of Marco Polo and more family friendly fare such as Felix is Hungry and Mickey in Lilliput (the Mouse celebrates his 100 birthday this year!).  This home library of 9.5mm films speaks volumes about the viewing practices of a young family in the 1940s, but it also tells us that you can’t always judge a book by its cover, or rather a film reel by its dust jacket! 

Though this box appeared to contain only reduction prints of professionally made and distributed films, amongst the boxes we did locate a handful of movies produced by the owners of the film collection. Just as we had discovered Charlie Chaplin’s The Pawnshop (1916) hiding in the box of Laurel and Hardy’s Vacant Possession (1949) we also unearthed a number of reels filmed by the Ponting family.  

The notes accompanying the potential deposit had given the impression that the collection would contain a majority of amateur produced material, but our initial assessment indicated that we might be disappointed in our hope of finding local material and given the overwhelming number of Pathé labelled items we were not hopeful. 

Working with two students on placement we undertook a careful assessment of the collection, sorting through the many titles, viewing as appropriate. We were able to identify several works that had been produced by the Ponting family. They also produced a number of films documenting their holidays overseas including to Austria, Switzerland and France – these films were not accessioned by WFSA.  

Winston John Ponting  

Mr Winston John Ponting (known as John) was born in 1910 and died in 1967. John successfully ran a chemist at 19 High Street, Andover and became the mayor of the town in the early 1950s.  

The Ponting name was renowned for its business and politics in Andover. For 100 years the family had been trading in the town; the bakers and confectioners ran by his father Wilfred Ponting and his grandfather Philip Ponting on Winchester Street, was prized for its ‘Ponting lard cake’. John was not the first in his family to become mayor. His grandfather Philip Ponting served in the late 1890s and early 1900s.   

Ponting was married to Mildred Edith Hale in 1940 and together they had three children. She passed away in 2000 and their son Richard passed away in 2023, making the collection of films from the 40s, 50s and 60s available to the archive.  

The collection as it came to WFSA consisted of a total of twenty-nine 9.5mm films, including many commercial prints and others, produced by Ponting, that were filmed on a Pathescope H camera. Ponting used both black and white and colour, reflecting the developments over the three decades he filmed. Of the handful of reels produced by Ponting, the majority showed foreign holidays and were not accessioned by WFSA; these showed holidays in Austria, Switzerland, and France. The four home movies retained show the family’s life where we see baby Richard grow. Ponting appears to mostly be filming his wife, friends, and family on days out to places such as the beach, boat trips, and mountain hikes.    

 
From the films one thing stays consistent: Ponting’s fascination with capturing movement and people. For example, using panning shots and zoom to follow seagulls from a mountain, tracking their movement. Also, he uses the camera to capture moments of family life, paying close attention to people’s expressions, interactions, and body language.  

Despite John Ponting being listed as the primary filmmaker in the notes provided by the depositor, there are scenes where he is shown holding his son following shots of his wife holding their son, suggesting that Mildred had a part to play in the production of these films and others on travels through Europe.  The shot of John next to war veterans also suggest that Mildred had a more prominent part in the filmmaking process than might be assumed. 

You can view a selection of these films on our YouTube channel.

Talita Fruhling de castro (Student of English and Film, University of Southampton) 

Zoë Viney Burgess (Film Curator, WFSA)