On Clogger Lane
by Andrew Black
Named for an old road, now submerged beneath a reservoir, On Clogger Lane meanders through the Washburn Valley in Yorkshire. It explores the infrastructures of capital on land overshadowed by a monstrous surveillance station, flooded and dammed, haunted by accusations of witchcraft, and populated by the traces of many generations of past inhabitants – from prehistoric carvings to the Victorian graves of child labourers.
The film incorporates newly-recorded conversations with Sylvia Boyes, Anne Lee, and Lindis Percy, local women who have been involved in opposing the activities of RAF Menwith Hill, an American-run signals intelligence base, and British and US imperialism in different capacities over decades. Further contributors are local people whose connections to the Washburn Valley tell complex and interlinked stories of industrial exploitation, social history, and folklore—farmers, antiquarians, dowsers, grandmothers, Quakers, and communists. These oral histories are accompanied by an experimental score, including music by Leeds improvisational band Vibracathedral Orchestra, synthesised medieval English song, and archival sound and film from the Yorkshire Film Archive.
On Clogger Lane explores the meeting points of passivity and protest, public and private, past and present, all coincident in the same patch of ancient land.
Words of Andrew Black
Clips from On Clogger Lane (silent)
Although I was initially brought on as a colourist, I offered to help with the editing when I saw that Andrew was facing the daunting task of processing a huge volume of interview material. Together, we sifted through and condensed many hours of footage into a more focused and manageable reel. With that groundwork in place, Andrew was in a much better position to continue editing independently. We developed a productive rhythm, coming together for focused back-to-back editing sessions in between his solo work. This approach allowed us to continually challenge each other, refining the material further with each pass. Weaving together these seemingly disparate stories felt like a process of drawing the deeper links between them, and interrogating the narrative at every turn.
Clip of Sally Robinson at Fewston Churchyard in On Clogger Lane
Clip from On Clogger Lane featuring the voice of Anne Lee. In the edit we called this the "beginning of Act 2". After setting up a lot of history in the valley, we finally reveal the present situation: RAF Menwith Hill.
Andrew has a remarkable ability to blend his grotesque wit with thought-provoking ideas. Editing together was a heady mix of howling with laughter at some of our ideas—many of which actually made the cut—alongside serious conversations delving into the very depths of the work, its intention, its purpose. Working with him pushed me to grow beyond my own reservations about what constitutes an “acceptable” image, as he unrelentingly advocated for elements like the violet charge—the blue-violet fuzzy grain visible in the shadows of some shots—that, in Andrew’s words from the film, alludes to “some kind of charge, here,” or, as Steph describes it, “deep time and shallow time.” On reflection, I’m more annoyed it wasn’t my idea in the first place—it's just dead right.
For the colour and finishing, I was quite excited by the challenges some of the footage presented. On one of the shoot days the lens Andrew was shooting with had a strange malfunction where its optical stabilisation was just vibrating randomly causing the image to wobble all over the place. This was exacerbated by the rolling shutter effect. I used several passes of AI stabilisation tools that had only become available, for the first time ever, about two weeks before the session. All other typical stabilisation tools failed. For the colour I wanted to create a rich, physical grade that feels inky, dark and filmic, compressing a lot of shadow detail within an inch of black to allow, as David Lynch says, "more room to dream". Some other scenes feel rather lush, like with Barrie at Dacre Pasture or Andy on the hillside with the cup and ring stone markings at the end. This lushness and cursedness speaks to the film's central tension, which is best highlighted by Sylvia Boyes in the film "and we're allowing [RAF Menwith Hill] in this lovely part of Yorkshire to do its dastardly deeds."
Installation view of On Clogger Lane at Yorkshire Contemporary (Tetley) in Leeds, 2023. Photo © Jules Lister
The film was commissioned by LUX Scotland for the Margaret Tait Commission and premiered at the Glasgow Film Theatre in 2023. It then went on to Yorkshire Contemporary (formerly Tetley) for nearly six months, was screened at the Washburn Valley Heritage Centre (which features in the film) in Fewston, before going on to LUX in London for a few months in 2024.
In 2023 the film was acquired by the Yorkshire Film Archive, who also supplied us with most the archive footage featured in the film.
A film by Andrew Black
Featuring Anne Lee, Tom Cox, Barrie Jackson, Sally Robinson, Richard Green, Stephanie Shields, Sylvia Boyes and Lindis Percy
Production assistants Annie Crabtree and Emmie McLuskey
Edited by Daniel Hughes and Jen Martin
Sound design by Richy Carey
Sound mix by Mark Readhead
Colourist Daniel Hughes
With thanks to contributions from Janet Black, Peter Black, Simon Brooks, James Elkington, Al Garthwaite, Simon Marriott, Iain MacKinnon, Catherine MacPhee, James Oliver, Will Rose, Chris and Christine Ryder at Scaife Hall Farm, Tom Steele, Helen Summerton and Sarah Walker.
With thanks to Jane Simpson and all at the Nidderdale Museum; Gillian Allman, Margaret Hornby and all at the Otley Museum; Members of the Otley Peace Action Group; Charlotte Houlahan at the Peace Museum, Bradford; John and Christine Pearce, Sally Robinson, Gillian Waters, Jenny Wilson and all at the Washburn Valley Heritage Centre; Graham Relton and all at the Yorkshire Film Archive.
Featuring archival film and music: Thruscross Reservoir, 1966 by D.H. Whiteley; Outdoor Training of Police Cadets, 1962 by Rex Matthews, Morris Smith & J.P. Little; With These Hands, 1955 by J. Eric Hall; Colour TV Transmission, 1960; The Spider's Web, 1970 by the Yorkshire Naturalists' Trust, George Edwards; Stone Harvest, 1949 by Cyril & Betty Ramsden.
The Margaret Tait Commission is a LUX Scotland project delivered in partnership with Glasgow Film, with support from Creative Scotland.
