Madurodam miniature park in Holland in 1973

The film featured in this post is a super 8 film which was taken on a visit to Holland in 1973. A large portion of the film seems to show the Madurodam miniature park in the Hague.

The film is labelled ‘Holiday in Springtime 1973 – Pt1’ so I had to work out the location from the scenes shown. It wasn’t too difficult because the Madurodam park is quite distinctive, the wiki page linked to above showed some images from the 1970s making it even easier and as a final clue the name of the park appears in the film!

Because this film was taken on Super 8 film stock, the quality of the video clip is significantly better than other clips on everythingvintage.uk which were taken on Standard 8. The increased image size really makes a difference.

Film of the Madurodam Miniature Park – 1973

So to the clip itself.

The film starts with a group of people boarding a coach for the journey to the park. Since the coach has a non UK registration, I’m assuming this sequence as taken in Holland and shows the trip from the hotel the photographer was staying in to the park. After a short sequence showing the driver, the coach arrives at the entrance to Madurodam and the coach party disembarks.

The rest of the film shows shots of the park itself and the large number of buildings and features of Holland which are reproduced in miniature form. There are docks with what appear to be oil refineries and of course the canals and windmills Holland is famous for, but also a model of the airport and railway systems as well.

Because the film was originally more than one part, it stops rather abruptly and unfortunately I don’t own the other reel in the series.