Rain, Rain, Gutters and Rain

The barometer is stuck on ‘Rain’. At Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, the gutters and drains need attention, the cattle need hay, the calves milk.

During a wet winter, drainage systems comes under pressure. Ion Trant of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, climbs a ladder to attend to a gutter; his son, David, rods a field drain. A new drain is laid to avoid future waterlogging. Cattle in a grass-free mudbath of a field appreciate some sweet hay, and calves are bucket or udder fed. This film reel itself has been affected by water. Mould has bloomed on it, hence the patterning (quite attractive in its own right) over many of the images.

Ion Trant, from Dovea Farm, Tipperary, Ireland, was conscious of a gulf emerging between town and country and welcomed school visits to his Powys farms - Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, the adjoining farm Cefn Du (where shepherd Evan Arthur lived), and Esgairdraenllwyn, Llaithddu. He created/filmed the "Country Close-Up" series for children (BBC - 1956-62), often featuring his own 3, and was subsequently offered work as a freelance cameraman on the BBC's farming programme. He also ventured further afield, travelling as cameraman with sports commentator Max Robertson to the West Indies and with George Cansdale, field naturalist and ex-Superintendent of London Zoo, to Palestine and Israel.