Farm*

Through the lens of a local farm hand, the slow rhythms of a farming year gently unfold at the friendly Ogle family farmsteads near Hartlepool. In sight of the North Sea coast sand hills, Hart Mill and Steetley magnesium works, livestock roam free and locals muck in with potato harvests. Traditional hay-stacks celebrate old skills but the gleaming red power machinery at the Stokesley Agricultural Show hint at a hi-tech future on the horizon.

The rush to produce food to beat the U-boats during the Second World War introduced a time of change in British agriculture, though modernisation of farms was uneven across the country. This first-hand chronicle of life on Hart Warren, Middle Warren and Throston Grange Farms in the 1960s proudly charts the gradual post-war turn from farm hand to machine – the Fordson Major tractor, automatic baler, combine harvester – whilst highlighting that manpower and traditional farming methods were still to the fore on these small farms. Stokesley Agricultural Show, one of the largest in the North, was founded in 1859 at a meeting held in the High Street inn, The Golden Lion.