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Boxted Hall Farm Scenes

1925 , Boxted (Essex)

Cat no. 709

A home movie showing a farm during the transition period from horse to tractor power, with special attention to the labourers who work on the farm.

A farm worker with a horse in a country lane. Another worker drives a horse and cart. A man, possibly the foreman, stops to talk to him. In the farmyard, the Blewitt family: Guy Blewitt and his wife Audrey and Denise Blewitt, wife of the film maker. There are pets and some of the farm workers. A man drives up in a Trojan van. General scenes around the farm include a man driving a horse-drawn water cart, the feeding of pigs and piglets, workers in a field with a tractor, and a shepherd leading sheep along a country lane. In the farm yard, the farmer rides his bike towards the camera and stops to pose. The cows return along the lane for milking. Other scenes depict a horse-drawn hoe, a tractor-drawn harrow and a steam-powered threshing machine. Men are at work round the thresher, and a Scottie dog hunts for rats in the straw. Sacks of grain are lifted up onto a cart. The threshing team line up for the camera and remove their caps.

Keywords

Agricultural workers; Farming

Background Information

In a commentary provided for the East Anglian Film Archive in 1996 Mr. James Blewitt explained that his father and uncle bought the farms in 1922. There were two good houses. They introduced tractors very early on. Ralph Blewitt was a territorial Army officer and had been introduced to tractors via this. The van was used for taking the milk to the diary in Colchester. In 1925, 23 men and boys worked on the farm and they employed a farm carpenter; in 1996 there were 2. The horses used here were Suffolk Punches.

Manifestations

Boxted Hall Farm Scenes

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