British Pathe

M/S looking along The Strand in London as traffic passes; St Clement Danes Church is seen in the background, the tower covered in scaffolding; M/S of the church, with the tower behind a fretwork of scaffolding (wartime damage is being repaired). M/S looking up through an archway at one of the smaller...

M/S looking along The Strand in London as traffic passes; St Clement Danes Church is seen in the background, the tower covered in scaffolding; M/S of the church, with the tower behind a fretwork of scaffolding (wartime damage is being repaired). M/S looking up through an archway at one of the smaller towers. Commentator talks of the history of the area and how the fruit porter's route once led through Clement's Inn, and a toll of oranges was levied here on merchants bringing citrus fruits from the Mediterranean to the big markets of London.

Great high angle shots of Covent Garden Market; showing trucks moving slowly along, loaded with crates, and being unpacked. M/Ss in Long Acre as crates of oranges are unloaded from a lorry. M/S of some children playing 'Oranges and Lemons' on the cobbled stones in the market.

Cut to M/S of a group of children in Spain, wearing traditional costume and playing their version of 'Oranges and Lemons' before and orange grove; M/S of four children sitting and watching the game; they sway to the song and two of them play castanets. A woman appears, claps her hands and the children run off into the orange grove; a man walks past with a large basket of oranges on his shoulder. Various M/Ss and C/Us as we see women and children picking oranges in the grove; some men carry large baskets full of oranges away; C/Us of ripe oranges growing.

Cut to C/U of a man sitting and playing a traditional flute in North Africa; M/S of a group of boys playing their version of 'Oranges and Lemons'. M/S in the African orange grove as we see women and children picking oranges from the trees (all wear traditional costume); M/S as men stack the boxes of oranges in the shade. M/S of men leading donkeys with panniers full of oranges past the boys playing 'Oranges and Lemons' outside a house; one man gives an orange to each boy before moving on. C/U of the flute-player's fingers moving up and down on the instrument.

Cut to C/U of a man's fingers moving over the keys of an accordion; M/S of the young man playing the accordion as commentator tells us he is playing for the traditional harvest dances in Israel. Various shots of people picking oranges from the trees and carrying the fruit off in boxes. Commentator says "Israel trusts the harvests - as with many other tasks - to the youth of the country". M/Ss of the accordion player, and other young people dancing to the music in their lunch break, before the foreman rings a bell to call them back to work.

Cut to M/Ss we saw earlier of the oranges in crates, being unloaded in Long Acre, Covent Garden Market, and the children playing 'Oranges and Lemons'. C/U as a man standing on a lorry lifts a crate onto the shoulder of a man on ground level; he starts to walk off with it but it slips and falls to the ground, scattering oranges everywhere. The children playing nearby run over and start picking up oranges and put them down the front of their shirts; a small crowd is watching in the street. The man tries to stop the children, but they all run off grinning mischievously.

Note: good shots of orange harvesting, fruit picking and Covent Garden Market before it went posh!