This film is part of Free

Buying Chicks by the Box

Day-old chicks need warmth, water and food and the Trant children of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, can be relied on to provide all that is required.

School programme and Educational film 1957 6 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales

Overview

The Trant children of Maesmawr Hall farm, Welshpool, ensure that the day-old chicks they acquire from a hatchery will be comfortable in their new surroundings. This footage featured in one of Ion Trant’s early children’s programmes, all filmed, edited and scripted by himself. The series, initially Country Calendar, became known as Country Close-Up (BBC TV 1956-62). Activities on his farms featured, often showing the involvement of his children.

Ion Trant was born and brought up on Dovea Farm, Tipperary, Ireland. He studied agriculture in Canada and then joined the staff of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station in Aberystwyth where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, both of them working on developing improved grasses for upland farms with George Stapledon. The Trants farmed at Maesmawr Hall, the adjoining farm Cefn Du, and Esgairdraenllwyn at Llaithddu, Llandrindod. As a result of the Country Close-Up series, Ion was offered work as a freelance cameraman on the BBC's farming programme and on trips further afield e.g. a trip to Palestine and Israel with George Cansdale, field naturalist and ex-Superintendent of London Zoo.