Under the direction of their Club Secretary, Scott Renwick, Hawick Film Group made Sons of Heroes in 1964 to commemorate the 450th anniversary of Hawick’s Battle of Hornshole – the 1514 skirmish in which local youth defeated pillaging English soldiers a year after Flodden.
The film begins as a documentary of the 1964 Common Riding, before transitioning into a historical reenactment of the 1514 incident, narrated by a young Gordon Jackson, who in 2010 would serve as ‘Acting Father’ in that year’s Common Riding ceremony.
A snapshot of 1960s Hawick as much as it is a depiction of the town in 1514, this historical epic was made with a modest budget of £80 (£1600 in today’s terms), thanks to the voluntary efforts of Hawick Film Group – amateur practitioners of ‘cine-photography’ – as well as the Hawick Drama Club, the Hawick Amateur Operatic Society, the dozens of young local actors who took part in the film, and the Hawick Saxhorn Band and Drum and Fifes.
The proceeds from screenings of the film went towards the conversion of a sweetie shop on Croft Road into a 42-seat cinema space, which HFG still operates today.
