Home In Anglia

Scenes of Anglia's food production history presented for overseas audiences.

An Anglia Television film made not for the regional television audience, but for an audience overseas including ex-patriates. The local scene is set with views of sailing boats on the Broads, a windpump, river and beach scenes, a field of grain and a thatched roof. After exterior views of the thatched Whitehouse Farmhouse, the door opens and the camera moves into a room with sofa, open stairs and fireplace. Standing in front of a different fireplace, Dick Joice points to the Anglia region in an atlas and addresses the viewers overseas in their ‘new, fast-developing and bustling country’. He refers to what is quaint and olde worlde in an Anglia home, the oak beams, thatch and fireplaces. He explains that this was an inn in the seventeenth century, and takes a copy of Parson Woodforde’s diary from the bookcase to read an account of the generous proportions of a square meal. Dick Joice asks whether it would be possible, if the food were affordable, to purchase it on a Sunday. This links to a humorous sequence pointing out the anomalies of Sunday trading laws in the United Kingdom. Bob Wellings attempts unsuccessfully to purchase razor blades at a chemist’s, paper at a stationer’s and tinned peas at a grocer’s, though the shops are open and can sell other similar products which aren’t specifically prohibited from Sunday sale. He is able to buy what he wants from a mobile shop. Dick Joice appears as an annoyed shopkeeper. Back to Whitehouse Farmhouse for a further link on the subject of food, introducing film of the oyster fisheries at Brightlingsea, Essex. Men introduced as Hector, Charles and George rake the oyster beds and carry full baskets to their boat. A wrecked boat hulk is deliberately left in the oyster layings to create the conditions which encourage oyster development. The flocking gulls are referred to as ‘ancestors’, the spirits of old oystermen. The boat with the valuable oysters is taken to the quay, passing Bert White, the Mayor of Brightlingsea, who has his own oyster business. The oysters are culled to sort good from bad, removing passengers including whelks and starfish. Colchester natives are compared with Portuguese oysters. A view of Brightlingsea shows the beach huts. Behind the sea wall, in a hygienic process, the oysters are cleaned then purified in tanks of seawater over several days, before they are placed in baskets, loosely covered and labelled for transfer to buyers. A further link from Dick Joice introduces the theme of Christmas feasting. At Witchingham Hall, rhyming commentary accompanies images of a tale of feasting on turkey in olden times. In unconvincing costumes, a servant ‘wench’ turns the turkey on a spit by the fire, a serving man offers wine and ale, a couple kiss, and two female guests eat large portions of turkey held in their hands. Back at the farmhouse, Dick Joice mentions tales of haunted houses, and the back of the bookcase swings open as a door and he walks through.

Featured Buildings

Whitehouse Farmhouse, formerly the White Horse Inn, Morton-on-the Hill, Norfolk Great Witchingham Hall, Great Witchingham, Norfolk

Keywords

Regional identity; Food production; History; Sunday trading; Shopping; Meals; Christmas

Other Places

Brightlingsea, Essex Great Witchingham, Norfolk

Background Information

The Reverend James Woodforde's diary 1774 - 1803 written during his residence in Norfolk at Weston Longville was published posthumously as 'The Diary of a Country Parson'. It is an exceptional and detailed account of country life in the late eighteenth century. Whitehouse Farmhouse served as an inn from the late seventeenth century until 1912. Great Witchingham Hall was the home of Bernard Matthews, turkey farmer.