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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Pembrokeshire Castles (Manorbier, Carew, Picton) and Point-to-Pointing (Lydstep)
The castle ruins stand solid and still, the horses race flat out, the Boy Scouts at the Picton Jamboree try balancing on sticks!
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Overview
In filming places/events of interest to his family, W J Smith, like many home-movie makers, also created a social history document. He shot footage of the Carew Cross after its re-positioning post-WWII, when it was moved for safekeeping (the young workman in dungarees probably an apprentice of Smith's brother Freddy). Smith's sons attended the Boy Scout Jamboree in the grounds of Picton Castle in 1952. His wife, a fine horsewoman, would have enjoyed the Lydstep racing.
William John Smith, born in Monkton in 1912, was an electrician and worked to connect many Pembrokeshire villages to the electricity supply in the late 1940s/50s. He also had a smallholding where he bred pigs and spaniels, the latter as gun dogs. His first wife was Sissy Irene Pawlett, of Barn Farm, Rosemarket. They lived in Golden Hill, Pembroke where they brought up 4 children – Billy, John, Mary and Alan. See also 'Pembrokeshire: life on the land and the Alumchine ferry'.
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