Southern Uplands

Snapshot of rural life and work in the sparsely populated Scottish Southern Uplands, tracing tweed from field to mill.

The ruins of Neidpath Castle and Melrose Abbey frame the history of the borderlands, but it's geography that really shapes the story. In the rural hills and dales the land offers up yields of wool, cereals, meat and milk. A sheep shearer removes a fleece in one piece, pipe in his mouth throughout, and a horse is as good as a tractor in reaping a harvest of oats. In Galashiels, wool is woven to tweed.

This educational documentary combines the talents of John Elder and J Blake Dalrymple and was released by Gaumont British Instructional (GBI), early entrants to the field of the classroom film. Elder was a former teacher and founder of the Scottish Educational Film Association, his partner Dalrymple a photographer with an eye for landscape and a desire to travel. Together they would make a significant contribution to film in education through both GBI and the Glasgow Education Authority.