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.
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Foel Grocery Van, Cwm Twrch Shearing and Tipperary Creamery
The Foel grocer delivers bread in a van; wool is gathered in Cwm Twrch; farmers in Co. Kerry take churns on carts to a creamery for distribution.
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Overview
The Foel grocer, his village shop situated midway between Welshpool and Dolgellau, delivers bread and other necessities to outlying farms by van. The women farmers walk across the fields with their baskets/bags to this mobile shop. Meanwhile, it is shearing day at a farm in Cwm Twrch, the hand shearers on benches, the sheep hobbled. Over in Ireland, farmers queue with their churns and carts at a creamery in Co. Kerry, and calves are brought in to Tipperary town for sale.
Filmed by Ion Trant from Dovea Farm, Tipperary, Ireland, who studied agriculture in Canada and then joined the staff of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station at Aberystwyth, where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool. They farmed at Maesmawr Hall and the adjoining farm, Cefn Du, and at Esgairdraenllwyn, Llaithddu, Llandrindod. Conscious of an emerging gulf between town and country, Ion welcomed school visits to his farms and also devised/filmed the Country Close-Up series for children (BBC TV 1956-62), often featuring his own 3. He was subsequently offered work as a freelance cameraman on the BBC's farming programme and others.
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