Kerry Sheep Sale

It’s all go at the sheep sale in Kerry, Powys but life has gone from a cottage in the hills – it lies in ruins.

The sheep sale in Kerry, Powys, attracts farmers from far and wide looking to buy Kerry Hill sheep, the local breed that provides good wool and good meat. Ion Trant shows the sheep – including a particularly photogenic group of 4 - being gathered off the hillside for transport to the sale and the prospective buyers and auctioneer at the sale. A ruined cottage, out in the hills and abandoned to nature, also features.

Ion Trant, of Dovea Farm in Tipperary, Ireland, studied agriculture in Canada and then joined the staff of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station in Aberystwyth where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool. The Trants farmed at Maesmawr Hall, the adjoining farm Cefn Du, and Esgairdraenllwyn at Llaithddu, Llandrindod. Ion Trant created/filmed the Country Close-Up series for children (BBC TV 1956-1962) which often featured the farms and the Trants 3 children. As a result of the series, Ion was offered work as a freelance cameraman on the BBC's farming programme and on trips further afield e.g. to the West Indies with sports commentator Max Robertson.