Sophie Neville takes a closer look at some of the Swallows and Amazons film props recently featured on Antiques Roadshow…

Last month BBC Antiques Roadshow featured some of the flags from the original movie Swallows and Amazons (1974) in which I played Titty Walker. These film props had been sent to me by the producer Richard Pilbrow who now lives in Connecticut. I take them with me if I’m ever asked to give a Q&A or talk about The Making of Swallows and Amazons. Film fans enjoy taking selfies with them.

The flag Titty made for Swallow in the original film ‘Swallows and Amazons’ (1974). Were some of these stitches mine after all?

I explained that they were made on location in 1973, possibly by the Art Director, Simon Holland, who enjoyed painting. Equally, they may have been made by the Set Decorator Ian Whittaker, or Bob Hedges who was in charge of the action props. In the story, Titty decides to make a new flag for the Swallow. I was keen on sewing as a child, and was thrilled to be given a needle and thread to stitch a blue swallow on the flag myself in a scene with Virginia McKenna, who played Mrs Walker, shot at Holly Howe (Bank Ground Farm) above Coniston Water in the Lake District. Rather a modern reel of cotton was caught in vision.

Virginia McKenna, as Mary Walker with Sophie Neville playing her daughter Titty Walker busy stitching Swallow’s new flag in preparation for the voyage to the island. (c)StudioCanal

It was not until I returned from recording Antiques Roadshow at Windermere Jetty and had the flag on my desk that I noticed some of the stitches are different from others. It looks as if the small, white stitching on one wing could have been my own. As a child, I had thought the larger stitches rather clumsy but am sure they looked appropriate in vision. It would be worth far more if it was known to have been made by Ian Whittaker. He won an Oscar and was nominated for his work on a number of other films.

Ian Whittaker with the Art Director Simon Holland.

“Properly,” as Titty would say, the bird should be flying towards the mast, although I am assured that Arthur Ransome did once draw a diving swallow on one flag. In his book, the swallow was sewn into the cloth rather that plonked on top of fabric browned by tea but our flag has lasted for 48 years.

Property Master Bob Hedges keeping the perch alive.

After Antiques Roadshow was broadcast, a lady who grew up in Bowness on Windermere, wrote to say, “It may be of interest that we still have the fishing rods that were used in the film. They belonged to my father Leslie Borwick and were lent to the film crew. They are rather worse for wear but still treasured as I was a big fan of the books when I was young. Unfortunately I was living abroad when the film was made so have no memories of it.”

Leslie Borwick, was a keen fisherman who took his daughter out to catch perch. She said that the bamboo rods are quite fragile but one has a wooden reel, which is interesting. “My mother’s side of the family were very keen fishermen. Their surname was Bousefield and there is a fly called ‘Bousefield’s Fancy'(Frank Bousefield)”.

Ronald Bousfield fishing at about the time ‘Swallows and Amazons’ was written.

You can read the original post about filming the fishing scene on Elterwater here.

A clip of Swallow’s flag being valued on BBC Antiques Roadshow can be watched on BBC iPlayer or seen on Youtube here:

Sophie Neville’s story about The Making of Swallows and Amazons is available from the Nancy Blackett Shop, which supports the work of the Nancy Blackett Trust.

The original version of this story was published by Sophie Neville in May 2021.