Gumber Farm

A film of bucolic bliss - where children enjoy both summer fun and winter frolics despite the start of the Second World War

This sumptuous colour film shows the Hansford family at Gumber Farm near Slindon, West Sussex, on the eve of World War 2. It features a cycling postie, the Bertram Mills Circus, trips to the seaside at nearby Bognor Regis and farm labourers working in the fields and tending the sheep, assisted at all times by some very happy children. We also see the children enjoying the first wartime Christmas and the snows of 1940 before tending new born lambs the following spring.

Professor Sydney Howard Hansford was the UK’s foremost authority on Chinese jade – making several visits to Peking throughout his career. He was also a keen amateur cinematographer and botanist. His considerable intellect and experience saw him working in the Diplomatic Section of Bletchley Park’s Hut 8, where Enigma messages from the German Navy were eventually deciphered. In 1939, Professor Hansford moved his family from Mill Hill in London to the relative peace of Gumber Farm, near Slindon in West Sussex. The family returned to Mill Hill in 1940. The farmer who appears in the film was called Mr Mouland. His son, Bill, also makes an appearance.