Films spanning a century of the Epsom Derby published online by British Pathé

A collection of historic films of the Epsom Derby spanning the past century have just been published on the web.

British Pathé has posted a series of short clips on Youtube depicting the Epsom Derby through the ages, as well as spring meetings and ladies’ days at Epsom Downs Racecourse, the building of a new stand in 1926 and Lord Kitchener reviewing troops on the Downs between 1914 and 1918.

Your Local Guardian: The Queen at the Epsom Derby, 1968 (YouTube/British Pathé)

The Queen at the Epsom Derby, 1968 (YouTube/British Pathé)

One clip shows the Queen meeting and greeting on the racecourse at the 1968 Epsom Derby and another shows the 1953 Cambridge University boat race crew training at the Royal Automobile Club, in Epsom, for its annual clash with Oxford.

Suffragette Emily Davison’s dramatic interruption of the 1913 Epsom Derby is also depicted in the footage, with one film showing the race in which she was hit by the King’s horse Anmer.

British Pathé, one of the oldest media companies in the world, produced newsreels, cinemagazines and documentaries in the UK from 1910 to 1970.

Your Local Guardian: The crowds at Epsom Ladies' Day, 1954 (YouTube/British Pathé)

The crowds at Epsom Ladies' Day, 1954 (YouTube/British Pathé)

Its founder was the Parisian Charles Pathé who pioneered the development of the moving image.

Accumulating 35,000 hours of filmed history by the time the company stopped producing footage, its material is now used in television programmes, advertisements and, most recently, in web publishing.

Here are ten highlights from the films published: