Young Farmers Club

Animal farm, where pigs get judged, fowls trussed and sheep sheared; while some rabbits win prizes and others are skinned. But hay throwing and salad making are also on show.

The age old farmers’ get together, somehow staying the same yet ever evolving. In the wake of the Second World War, which left the countryside bereft of young labourers, Northallerton Young Farmers Club organise a rally to demonstrate their skills. Everything is on show, from stone wall building to tractor driving and shearing sheep with hand scissors, while the ladies demonstrate their salad making skills and how to skin a rabbit.

This is one of two films of Young Farmers Rallies in North Yorkshire made by an unknown filmmaker in the late 1940s. In 1947 the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs (formed in 1932) organised a national scheme to promote agricultural skills, with the help of government money. Northallerton Young Farmers Club, is still in existence, as are similar clubs throughout the country, offering a wide range of activities, including rallies – differing from agricultural shows which focus on the practice of farming, with livestock competitions. The earliest agricultural shows date back the beginnings of the agricultural revolution in the mid-eighteenth century to feed a rapidly expanding population.