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Men of the Land

1937 , Morley St Peter (Norfolk)

Cat no. 1249

Farm workers at Morley St Peter, Norfolk.

The opening titles are shown over shots of a horse-drawn plough. All of the machinery in this film is horse drawn. A lot of work is still done by hand. There are shots of the fields and shots of the electric or telephone wires stretching overhead. There is a shot of a chimney and then of a water butt. A man leaves a cottage and fills a bucket from the water butt. He uses this to wash his hands and face. He feeds milk to two tabby cats and then prepares his own lunch of milk with bread and cheese. The milk is poured into what was a bottle of stout. Lunch is placed into a basket which in turn is fastened onto the back of his bicycle. He cycles to work.The next shot shows several bicycles being parked, suggesting many farm workers arrived at work on bicycles. The tasks of the day begin. The first job is to feed the pigs. The shed is unlocked and the piglets run out. Their food is mixed in a bucket and fed to them. The farm worker saddles and harnesses a team of three horses. They are filmed harrowing. The farm worker walks behind and rides on the harrow. There are shots showing his feet walking through mud. He hoes strawberries, digs potatoes and tops sugar beet. He sharpens his tools and mows grass for hay with a horse-drawn mower. This is loaded onto a cart. Men are filmed thatching a straw stack. Crops are scythed with a bill hook and a horse dawn reaper/binder harvests oats. There are close- up shots of the machine at work. Bundles are gathered and stooked before being loaded onto a cart. This is taken to the ricks. The film shows a shot of a newspaper headline reading; Wheat Prices Rise. Home Quotations Affected By Prospect Of World Shortage. There is a shot of a sack of wheat and then of coins and notes. These are placed into a hand and then given to another hand. Shots of children and items in a shop precede scenes outside the 'King George V' public house. The sign shows this Inn to be owned by Morgans' Ales and to be 3 miles from Wymondham and 12 miles from Norwich. There is a shot of cigarettes, matches and a tankard of ale being placed on the table. Two men play dominoes.

Keywords

Traditional Farming; Harvesting

Intertitles

On they labour these men from dawn to sunset, at never ending tasks that change with the seasons. Not a lot but it goes many ways.

Background Information

Morley St. Peter rarely appears on modern maps. In Kelly's Directory for 1931 Morley St. Peter is described as a parish of 1,067 acres. It was, A parish with a scattered population, 2 miles north west from Spooner Row Station on the Thetford and Norwich section of the London and North Eastern Railway, 3 1/2 south west from Wymondham and 3 north of Attleborough. The population in 1921 was 164

Manifestations

Men of the Land

  • Barcode
    INV344807
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MP4 H264 digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:16:17
    Modification Date
    23/03/2016
    Parts
    Reference
    741069
  • Barcode
    INV369572
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MP4 H264 digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:16:17
    Modification Date
    23/03/2016
    Parts
    Reference
    741058
  • Barcode
    INV333718
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MP4 H264 digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:16:17
    Modification Date
    23/03/2016
    Parts
    Reference
    741047
  • Barcode
    INV366509
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    DV digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:10:25
    Modification Date
    10/05/2011
    Parts
    Reference
    710710
  • Activities
    Barcode
    INV223838
    Canonical Identifier
    2007/77
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Details
    Carrier Type
    16mm film
    Colour System
    bw
    Colour Type
    bw
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:04:00
    Has Image
    Y
    Has Sound
    N
    Identifier
    Image Polarity
    neg+pos
    Modification Date
    09/08/2010
    Parts
    Reference
    686474
    Sound
    silent
  • Barcode
    INV210114
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    master digital
    Dimension
    Duration
    0:10:40
    Modification Date
    24/02/2010
    Parts
    Reference
    681214
  • Activities
    Barcode
    INV168843
    Canonical Identifier
    S 109
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    MII tape
    Dimension
    Identifier
    Modification Date
    15/08/2008
    Parts
    Reference
    675973
  • Barcode
    INV262754
    Canonical Identifier
    A-2337
    Canonical Title
    Unknown
    Carrier Type
    16mm film
    Identifier
    Modification Date
    25/06/2021
    Parts
    Reference
    564939

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