Arncliffe

An idyllic picture of country life between the wars, with children playing on the village green next to grazing cows and a farmer walks down a country lane with a milk urn on his back.

A whimsical but lovingly made portrait of country life in Arncliffe, Upper Wharfedale, in the 1930s, when roads mainly served as freeways for sheep and cows, and geese roamed everywhere at will. Here humans and farm animals seem to live in perfect harmony as house martins nest in the barn, a chicken pecks insects off a grazing cow, horses pull the plough, sheep dogs watch over the sheep, children play in the village school and the farmer’s wife feeds milk to a newborn lamb.

It isn’t known who took this film or which farm is featured. It is one of several films made of Arncliffe during the 1930s that were donated (initially to Upper Wharfedale Museum) by Reverand G Curry (not to be confused with the present day evangelist Revd. George Curry). The film looks to have been taken either in the grounds of a school or in the grounds of a large country house. G Curry was the vicar of St Oswald Church, Arncliffe – where the Right Reverend John Robinson, author of the influential book Honest to God, is buried.