National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
This film is part of Free
Castell Gorfod Farm
Caterpillar, Clyde Higgs and W H Buckley – all makers of agricultural machines featured here in use on Buckley's farm, Castell Gorfod, Llangynin, Carmarthenshire.
From the collection of:
Overview
W H Buckley, a non-executive director of Buckley's Brewery, Llanelli and master of the Carmarthenshire Foxhounds, reveals his interest in machinery, capturing on film the following items in use on his farm, Castell Gorfod, Llangynin, Carmarthenshire: a hay loader, a Clyde Higgs grass-cutting machine, a potato-laying machine invented by himself, a Caterpillar tractor, and Cymag gas equipment for the extermination of rabbits.
Lt Col W H Buckley was based in Bangalore 1925-30 with a calvary regiment, the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards. He retired from the army in 1930 and came back home to take on the family farm. He can be seen driving the Caterpillar tractor, wearing cap and bow-tie, to which is attached his invention - the potato-layer. Two men sit – possibly not very comfortably - in the contraption as it is drawn around the field, rhythmically feeding potatoes into the ground via a hole in the floor of the layer. In pursuit of further mechanical gadgetry, Buckley installed one of the first grass drying machines seen in Wales on his farm, which proved useful during WWII for drying water-damaged grain.