This film is part of Free

A Prickly Visitor at Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool

One dark night a hedgehog is found, by lamplight. When day dawns, the prickly creature is tempted to uncurl by the scent of a nicely boiled egg.

School programme and Educational film 1956 2 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

Curled up, fast asleep, a hedgehog is found on the farm one night, by lamplight. Come the morning, a curious hen and the wafting of a nicely hard-boiled egg under its nose eventually lead the animal – a ‘draenog’ in Welsh (meaning thorny or prickly one) – to uncurl and find its feet again before quietly moving on, out of sight.

Noticeable throughout the extensive amount of footage that Ion Trant shot of life on the farm is the contentment of the animals and their ease in the presence of the camera. E H C Davies, in his obituary for Ion Fitzgibbon Trant in ‘Montgomeryshire Collections’, Vol. 84, 1996, tells of how Ion served as High Sheriff in 1973 but, “he was better known to the general public as the commentator for many years at the County Show, where his knowledge of farming and his love of animals showed clearly in all he said.” He had been brought up on Dovea Farm in Tipperary, Ireland, and used his interest in film to create/shoot the "Country Close-Up" series for children (BBC - 1956-62), often featuring his own three at Maesmawr Hall.

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