Burnham Market

A day in the life of people in Burnham Market, Norfolk.

The film opens with a hand-drawn map showing the position of Burnham Market on the North Norfolk Coast. On A Monday Morning, shows high-angle colour shots of the village. A steam train in the background. Shots of the village streets show lorries travelling along the road. A group of farm workers load sheep into a lorry. This drives off. Empty fencing is unloaded from a van. People walk along the streets and congregate in the village centre to attend a sale. There are good shots of the village centre. Getting In The Harvest, shows harvesting oats with a tractor drawn reaper. The rabbits hiding in the crop are filmed running away. The grain is emptied into sacks that are tied by a young boy. Sugar Beet Time shows the sugar beet harvest. The beet are turned up by tractor before being pulled by hand. One group of farm workers knock the soil off the beet. They are followed by another group follow topping the beet by hand. A worker can be seen with protective sacks tied to his legs. The sugar beet are loaded into wagons and then taken away by steam train. There are exterior shots of P. Roy & Sons, Millers and Merchants at Burnham Overy. These show mill workers moving sacks around. There is a shot of a man with a car. On a farm, there are shots of a pig in a cart covered with a net and of a dog in a van. The pig is let out of the cart. One Day At School shows children aged between fifteen and five, suggesting that there was a Secondary Modern School and a Primary School on the same site. The school building is shown behind the ruins of a Church or Abbey. There are cars parked in the playground and a woman is filmed on a bicycle. There are scenes showing the boys at work in fields, possibly on the school farm. They burn rubbish and one cuts a hedge. There are scenes showing the younger children playing in the playground. At the end of the day the school bus arrives. Shots from the bus as it travels along the lanes show a windmill and a horse and rider. There are shots of the people on the bus and in the village. The next sequence shows scenes of a family day out at Hunstanton. There are shots of the sea front and of young children on the beach. There are shots of the boating lake and of a family picnic. The family visit the fairground. There are shots from the top of the helter skelter and some taken as the film maker slid down. The final sequence shows winter scenes from Burnham Market. There is snow on the ground and on the houses. A man clears snow from the pavement. A woman pushes a pram along the street. Children walk through the snow and into Church. Interior shots show the children holding candles.

Keywords

Farming; Harvesting; Markets; Schools; Village life

Intertitles

On A Monday Morning. Getting In The Harvest. Sugar Beet Time. One Day At School. The End.

Other Places

Burnham Overy; Hunstanton

Background Information

Philip Roy & Sons were based at Burnham Overy. The mill was gas powered.