This film is part of Free

A Year on a Mechanised Farm in Norfolk

Ploughing and sowing, baling and hoeing. Norfolk farmers produce food for a nation at war, aided by the latest farm machinery, but not altogether replacing the horse or labourer.

Amateur film 1940 43 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for East Anglian Film Archive

Overview

1940 in Sedgeford, Norfolk on Wethered Manor Farm, they are using mechanised equipment to farm the land. With a country at war, and a blockade around our shores, food production at home was of paramount importance. With East Anglia’s flat and featureless landscape, Norfolk farmers were relied upon to produce for a nation. And as labour was short because many farm workers had been enlisted, mechanised equipment was essential to produce on such a large-scale.

William Newcombe-Baker farmed at Burnham Thorpe and Sedgeford. The lorry seen in the film belonged to the Fakenham firm of Dewing & Kersey, Flour Millers. The town where the men fill the car with petrol may be Fakenham which is about 8 miles form Burnham Thorpe. The sugar beet factory is most likely to be Wissington or King's Lynn.