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Harvest

1933 , East Anglia (East Anglia)

Cat no. 544

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Harvesting

The shots of the harvest are accompanied by sound. Throughout, the noise of the machines is recorded. The men can be heard talking at work and at the pub. At one stage a flock of geese is audible in the background. The first sequence shows the harvest. The farm workers walk down the lane carrying their scythes. They sharpen these in the field and then scythe the barley. A horse-drawn binder and then a tractor drawn binder cut the corn. the sheaves are stacked. A pair of imported Massey Harris combines are shown at work somewhere in Norfolk. The bulk grain is emptied into a lorry alongside. There is a shot of Pakenham windmill with its sails turning followed by a sequence showing sheaves being carted along the lanes by horse-drawn waggon. There are women workers visible in these shots. As these trundle along there are pigs in the lane and close up shots of the men and boys leading and riding the horses. The rider of the horse featured is female. there is a shot of the men stacking the straw. The final scene shows the men going to the pub. They sit outside drinking. The actual sound picks up their voices as they drink to the bumper harvest.

Featured Buildings

Pakenham Windmill

Keywords

Harvesting

Intertitles

It has been a bumper harvest this year and the gathering of the crops has taken place early. British Movietone news presents to you a picture showing rural England at its busiest, and methods of reaping both old and new can be seen side by side in the wheatfields. The Countryside has its own particular appeal for townsfolk and few of us can deny the charm of its graceful and leisurely life which is perhaps symbolic of England's basic industry - Agriculture.

Other Places

Pakenham, Suffolk

Background Information

There is little indication as to the location of these shots. Thames Television thought it was shot in Suffolk but had little evidence for that. The Archive has since ascertained that the windmill in the film is at Pakenham. The combines in the film have Norfolk number plates. Three of these machines were imported into Britain and all worked in East Anglia. These may be at North or South Creake. The voices of the men outside the pub are suggestive of Suffolk, although the pub is of a Bedfordshire brewery. None of this evidence is conclusive, except in as much as most of the film is clearly shot, at least in part, in East Anglia. British Movietone News was the first sound newsreel. It broadcast from June 1929.

Manifestations

Harvest

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