Events:
We are proud to present the fourth annual programme of unique archive films from Herefordshire. This year we are working in collaboration with the Media Archive for Central England's programme Midland Journey to bring you some forgotten gems from Central TV's vaults, focusing strongly on rural life.
Peter Brown Reports from Herefordshire
Black and White, 1960, 10 minutes
Peter Brown filmed these news reports for ATV's magazine programme Midland Montage over the dry summer of 1960. Hitting the headlines that summer were the controversial use of maggots for salmon fishing on the River Wye, the traditional skills of a wheelwright and gypsy caravan builder in practise since 1911, the unusual enterprise of a young 14 year old Hereford boy who had taken up homebaking, and the old favourite - wassailing for a good apple harvest.
Jaywalking: God Speed the Plough
Colour, 1975, 27 minutes
Sue Jay travels to Ross-on-Wye as the town puts out it's bunting to welcome competitors who have come from far and wide for the national ploughing competition. Plucky Sue has a go at handling a horse and plough with Horace Samuels, and it looks slightly easier than getting predictions from the tight lipped contestants, who are giving nothing away. A charming film featuring both tractor based and horse drawn ploughing.
England their England: Inheritance
Colour, 1987, 30 minutes
Asks the question - what does the future hold for primary school children in rural Herefordshire, children like Andrew Bayliss from a farming family in Brilley? Will family farms continue to exist and how will Herefordshire change? This insightful documentary looks at the changing nature of agriculture and the reality away from the picture postcard. Filmed around Brilley, Arrowview, Kington and Eardisley.
Real Life on the Black Hill
Director: Naomi Vera-Sanso.
UK, 2007, 10 minutes
In the 1950s a housekeeper on an isolated farm at Crasswell on the slopes of the Black Hill picked up a cine camera and started filming farming life as it happened around her. Over the next couple of decades she filmed the highlights of the farming year with haymaking, shearing, pony sales, village shows, shepherds collecting their sheep after they were brought down from the Hill, and the ever popular summer rodeos. Interviews with the filmmaker and farmers who remember the old ways are interwoven with the original cine film.
Participating Flicks venues in Herefordshire will be showing some of these films as shorts.
This project is part-financed by the European Union (EAGGF) and DEFRA through the Herefordshire LEADER+ Programme and Screen WM through the UK Film Council's National Lottery Funds.