The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Farming and Farmer's Market
Meticulously groomed sheep vie with Aberdeen Angus bulls in a 1950s agricultural show, where animals and farm machinery alike compete with one another.
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Overview
The old and the new are joined together in this glimpse of British rural life in 1950s East Riding. A real treat for historians of post-war British agriculture, and of the breeds sheep and cow that were common at the time. The prominence of International Harvesters evidences the growth in agricultural machinery, while the intricate inspection of sheep invites us back over many centuries of sheep farming.
This is one of many films made by farmer Norman Stephenson and a Mr Hey, of farming and agriculture events in the 1950s around Market Weighton in East Yorkshire, and especially of his own Arras Farm. As well as providing a glimpse into post-war mechanisation, they also show the kinds of breeds of farming animals that were common at the time. The Market Weighton agricultural show lasted for about ten years before ceasing. Around the same time the Market Weighton Organisations Ltd, which features prominently in the film, also dissolved when it went into liquidation in December 1962.
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