“Louisa”
A Movie in the Making

Research & Producer- David Reynolds/Flat-Broke Films Ltd.

Our LOUISA dramatic lifeboat rescue screenplay based on the events of 1899 Lynmouth, Devon
is  ready to send to Film Agents & Producers.

Blue Plaque
Pictures of Old Lymouth
Location Shots

Flat-Broke Films Ltd was set-up in 2005 by David & Maralyn Reynolds who live in Cheltenham and their aim was to produce films set in The Cotswolds and South West England. Their first film “Waters End” was released on DVD in 2006 and locally sold over 2000 copies which encouraged them to originate new projects.  In September of 2007 David was attending the Porlock Literary Festival, when his attention was drawn to the famous 1899 lifeboat story set in Lynmouth, Devon.

Being fascinated by the Exmoor region he thought that this was a brilliant story which was well worth researching. So with David Hall’s help, (he was born in Porlock in 1937), they made many visits down to Exmoor, Lynton & Lynmouth: (Harbour & Cliff-Railway), Countisbury Hill, Porlock Hill, Porlock Weir, Hurlstone Point. They spoke to many knowledgeable local people including Jim Binding and local author Dennis Corner, about the famous LOUISA tale. The concept was to write a screenplay that captured the “recorded facts”, but to develop the story into an exciting film adventure which would appeal to all ages.


"LOUISA" being taken through Porlock Town where a house wall had to be demolished to get her through at 4am-the lady of the house was a bit surprised to see a lifeboat in the street.

In the spring of 2009, David announced on this website that he was developing a new screenplay, when “out of the blue” he was contacted by William (Bill) G. Homewood (USA) stating that he had already written a sixty page draft screenplay and perhaps they ought to get together to complete it. This they did by creating new characters and situations including life on board the Forrest Hall which has made the story more exciting and dramatic.

The LOUISA lifeboat coxswain, Jack Crocombe was given a stronger fictionalised back-story of his times as a fisherman before he moved to Lynton & Lynmouth. It must be remembered that although the LOUISA screenplay is based on real events, it has been developed as a pure work of exciting adventurous fiction and written to very high standards.  Bill and David’s ultimate aim is for the LOUISA lifeboat crew to receive posthumous Gold Medals from the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution). All they received was £5.00 and a silver watch donated by a local businessman.



Musician & composer Bob Rutkas from Chicago (USA) has composed twelve spec stirring themes for LOUISA which can be heard via the website: www.flat-brokefilms.co.uk . The tunes capture the heroic endeavours of the LOUISA lifeboat crew. One of David’s  favourites is “The Cliffs of Lynton” imagined as an opening shot by soaring high above the magnificent Exmoor cliffs of Countisbury Hill, over Lynmouth Harbour and the River Lyn valley and up towards Lynton Town. Wonderful, dramatic coastal scenery!


Forrest Hall (1909) off Ninety Mile Beach, North Island, New Zealand displayed with the kind permission of John Edmonds from Far North Photos Ltd. www.farnorth.co.nz from the Northwood Collection.

__________________________________________________


Dave Reynolds props up the Porlock Hill Toll Road signpost after climbing the hill ... in his car!

The whole purpose of our film project is to show this heroic rescue story to the Whole World and for all the lifeboat men to receive posthumous OBE’s or MBE’s or similar for their outstanding gallantry beyond the call of duty, on behalf of the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institute).

Ironically, after the amazing rescue of the “Forrest Hall”, in 1909, whilst transporting a hold full of coal from Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia to Chile in South America, the ship ran aground on Ninety Mile Beach, on the North Island of New Zealand in a calm sea and sunny day, onto a sandbank. (As shown on the photograph displayed above by kind permission of the State Library of South Australia).

The ship’s captain, having been ill, had set an incorrect course whilst running down Ninety Mile Beach and she became wrecked breaking her back. She is still there!! Fortunately, all the crew survived and the Captain was later found guilty of negligence in a tribunal and was suspended from duty for a few years. However he donated the ship’s bell to a local NZ school as a “thank you” to the population in the area that helped look after his crew. We have photos of that bell and the ship as it is now being sent to us by the Far North Regional Museum in Kaitaia, New Zealand for which we are very grateful for their help with our film project research.

__________________________________________________

WILLIAM (BILL) G. HOMEWOOD



Writing a screenplay for a feature length movie...LOUISA

Over thirty years ago when amateur writer Bill Homewood paid a visit to Lynmouth, he was told the fascinating story of how the great storm of 1899 brought such ferocity that the lifeboat could not be launched to answer the distress call from the cargo sailing schooner ‘Forrest Hall’. The most violent storm in a hundred years, swept eastward across the Bristol Channel about to pulverize anything in its path. Forrest Hall, undertow by a tugboat from Bristol to Liverpool, was just off the Devon coast with fifty-knot winds and thirty-foot waves when the tugboat’s tow hawser broke
apart.

The tug made an attempt to re-attach the towline, but a rogue wave reared up to cause a collision between the two vessels. Forrest Hall’s rudder was disabled.  A helpless Forrest Hall, now adrift, headed toward rocks and shallows off the Devonshire coast. The tugboat captain, unaware the Forrest Hall was rudderless, steamed away to Barry, Wales, to repair her damaged tow winch. He planned to return the following day to resume the tow, believing that Forrest Hall would set some sail and hove-to for the night. Homewood was so impressed he decided to write a screenplay; this drama had to be told.

The lifeboat coxswain, fearful he would see many of his crew die in an attempt to launch “Louisa” into huge crashing seas on the Lynmouth beach, made a seemingly stupid suggestion that they haul their seven-ton boat and carriage to Porlock Weir, a protected harbour fifteen miles away. The madness of such a proposal meant climbing the 1400 ft, Countisbury Hill, then across Exmoor to descend the dreaded Porlock Hill, the steepest hill in England. The owner of the local stagecoach stable provided twenty horses.  One hundred villagers, volunteered to help haul the boat over the
“mountain.”

Three horses would die from stress. The road was only eight feet wide in places, and a large tree was chopped down that would not allow the boat to pass. The worst situation arose when the lane narrowed down to seven feet with huge rock walls on either side, only wide enough to allow the beam of the boat to pass, but not the carriage. So they manhandled the boat off the carriage and with a dozen horses and human muscle slid the boat on wooden skids down the lane for one mile. The carriage, pulled by the remaining horses, crossed the muddy Exmoor to meet the boat at the end of the lane. After ten hard hours of backbreaking toil they arrived at Porlock Weir where Louisa was successfully launched.

Fourteen men, including a 16-year-old boy slogged their way out into the raging seas, huge rolling waves tossing their lifeboat about like a cork.  Eventually, they sighted the schooner and rowed in to the lee side of the ship where seas and wind were slightly calmer. Meanwhile, the tugboat returned, and gradually towed the ship safely off to Barry.  Louisa and her crew returned to Lynmouth to a huge crowd of villagers, waving Union Jacks, with much backslapping, vocal in their praises for these weary yet gallant men of Devon.

The screenplay “Louisa” is ready to read. All that is needed is an enthusiastic director to lead the way.

William G. Homewood, 24th March 2010