Crowds enjoying the spectacle of the Kilkeel Prawn Festival 1962

RARE and never before seen films of people, places and politics from across the north can now be viewed at the click of a mouse button.

The BFI's Britain on Film project went live this week, putting online thousands of archive films, cine footage and TV programmes shot around Britain and Northern Ireland and dating back to 1895.

Northern Ireland Screen helped collect and digitise a treasure trove of locally sourced material for the project, which can now be accessed via the BFI Player and shows the people and places of the north as they once looked – all captured in glorious monochrome and on early colour film.

The ongoing five-year project has already unearthed plenty of weird and wonderful vintage footage from Northern Ireland.

Winston Churchill visits Belfast in 1912 to argue in favour of Home Rule

Digital time travellers can now can ride on a tram through the streets of Belfast city centre in 1901 before leaping ahead to observe the crowds and participants at mid-20th century social events such as the Queen's University Rag day parades, the Lord Mayor's Show in Belfast and the Lammas Fair, compare and contrast Orange parades and festivities from the pre and post-Troubles eras and revisit sporting action including football, motor racing, golf, cycling and horse racing.

There is also historically significant material including the only existing footage of a young Winston Churchill arriving in Belfast to give his support to nationalist Home Rulers at Celtic Park in 1912, Sir Edward Carson observing machine gun drills in Larne during the UVF gun-running operations of 1914 and General Dwight D Eisenhower visiting Hillsborough in the mid-1940s, almost a decade before he became US president.

1938: Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

The north's industrial, agricultural, social and economic evolution is also well documented, with fascinating pre-NHS footage of the Royal Victoria Hospital that includes nurses at work in the 'Massage Department' circa 1938.

Francis Jones, Northern Ireland Screen's Digital Film Archive (Digitalfilmarchive.net)eduction officer, has been in charge of curating the north's contribution to the BFI project, which is now online and available for public consumption.

"All the film that's part of this project originated on cine, which we're trying to preserve and capture now before they can degrade and disintegrate any further," he explains. "So there's a real heritage and legacy aspect to the project."

'Viking invasion' in Kilkeel, 1963

Jones, a former music journalist from Belfast who has been with NI Screen since 2010, took on the challenge of gathering locally themed archive material for Britain on Film back in 2013.

"In the first instance we had to research what was actually out there and what we could put forward," he tells me. "A lot of the material was sourced working in partnership with National Museums Northern Ireland and quite a chunk of that was originally generated by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board from the mid-1950s onwards.

1962: Kilkeel Prawn Festival

"They had their own unit that captured Northern Ireland on film and photographs for various promotional purposes."

Indeed, as a result of such endeavours, it's now possible for present-day eyes to glimpse what went on at the 1962 Kilkeel Prawn Festival (the inaugural year of the event we now know as the Kingdom of Mourne Festival), witness the crowning of Holywood's 1958 May Queen and even experience a 'Viking invasion' at Kilkeel as re-enacted by costumed role players in 1963.

1960: World Ploughing Championship

Such idiosyncratic delights were a particular favourite for Jones while overseeing the project, as he explains.

"I really enjoyed a lot of the Tourist Board footage," he says. "It captures some places which are immediately recognisable from landmarks and iconic buildings, but also places which have changed drastically or have gone forever, like the Belfast Ice rink at Balmoral.

"That material provides a really revealing document of society and culture at those times. Some of it is quite quaint and unusual – I love the fact that at the Viking invasion festival, there's a moment in the middle where they take a break for some Irish dancing."

No doubt some will recognise friends and relatives still living and long dead in such footage, or perhaps even some much younger version of themselves.

Indeed, given that the Britain on Film project aims to "reveal the hidden histories and forgotten stories of people and places", they are keen to hear from anyone who has more information about what is happening in the various clips in the new online archive.

"Absolutely," confirms Jones. "We've been researching this material but it covers such a breadth of time spans, society, culture and industry that we can't know everything about each piece of film.

"So if people can help us fill in the gaps in our knowledge and tell us more about them, so much the better. It's also great to hear personal anecdotes as well and the ways in which the film affects them in terms of nostalgia."

And, should the BFI and NI Screen's endeavour remind you that you happen to have a trunk full of vintage footage gathering dust up in the attic that might add value to the north's contribution to Britain on Film, they want to hear about it.

"There will be another stage to this project, which actually runs up until 2017," explains Jones.

"We're in the process of just starting to look for other cine format material that we might get digitised for that, so if people have anything they feel we might be interested in, we'd love them to get in touch."

Who knows – your old family films could well become a window to our past for future generations.

Interact with Britain on Film at Bfi.org.uk/britain-on-film

Local highlights from Britain On Film

Belfast: The Churchill Meeting (1912)

This footage captures future prime minister Winston Churchill's infamous visit to Belfast, when he addressed an audience of nationalists in Celtic Park and told them of his support for Home Rule.

"We don't believe there is any other footage of Churchill's 1912 visit," comments Francis Jones, "so it is wonderful just to even have this snippet of him arriving in Belfast.

"It was a notorious incident: Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time and, having been sent over to argue in favour of Home Rule, he met staunch unionist resistance.

"What's good about this clip is that it features his wife Clementine, who was at the centre of one of the day's most noted incidents.

"Shipyard workers spotted Churchill's car and went to try and tip it over – until they noticed Clementine in the back seat and a cry of 'Mind the woman' went up.

"You also see Lord Pirrie in the film, who was chairman of Harland and Wolff."

Royal Victoria Hospital (1938)

This early film of the iconic west Belfast medical institution includes shots of the old casualty department and of a woman receiving treatment in the 'Massage Department', plus footage of a man in theatre being treated by surgeons and nurses.

"I love the fact that there's a Massage Department," says Jones, "and also when they tour around to show the old equipment like X-Ray machines, which are these huge hulking contraptions.

"But what really struck me about that film is that at the end one of the management makes an appeal about reducing waiting times. So while a lot of things have changed, there are some constants with the present."