Скачать или смотреть Our VIllage in the Wheatfield Rickinghall and Botesdale Suffolk

Mary and Ernie Baxter
tell of 'Our Village in the Wheatfields

In 1949 the Central Bureau of Information made an 18 minute black and white film entitled 'The Village in the Wheatfields' showing how wheat was produced and the story of the people involved with this. The film was made around Rickinghall and Botesdale in North Suffolk but every effort, for some reason, was made to disguise both the location and the people involved and the commentary was done by an academic who clearly had no conception of the idiom of the people which is shown by his completely pseudo country type accent and his use of the book word 'stooks' when everyone 'born to the east wind' knows they are only every referred to here as 'Shocks'. This pro- posterous external academic over ride with its many mistakes has now been deleted and replaced by the natural voices of those born in the village who have a wholesome and invested perspective.

THERE ARE PLACES IN THE DVD WHERE THE QUALITY OF FILM IS POOR. It was however inovative for it's time and still gives us a better rep- resentation of the life of the natural people than can be obtained otherwise. I have used the original film with permission from the Central Bureau of Information and have also been given permission from Mr D W Barker to include clips from cine films make by his father, F W Barker, who was a keen amateur cine film photographer. Mr Barker employed so many people from the village to work on the enormous variety of crops on his farms that Ernie can remember there being as many as 70 taking their seats at the harvest horkey.

I am deeply indebted to Mary & Ernie Baxter for their commentary on the film. Both were born in the village and have lived and worked here all their lives. They can remember the film being made and know, and indeed are related to, most of the people involved in its making. They have also added some of their collection of photographs and they tell us what life was like in the village and the contentment that was enjoyed. Ernie talks in his natural Suffolk tongue of a 'flop' of rain and a 'gavel' of straw, words no doubt not found in the academic's dictionary but for this reason alone they are the very beauty of it for they are the remains of a natural and superior image forming language once celebrated by Shakespeare and Chaucer the like of which we are unlikely to hear again.

The aim of this DVD is to give identity and respect to those involved in the film, and to show an internal historic perspective of what village life and working on the land was like immediately after the war.

Approx 50 minutes Produced September 2012. Neil Lanham, The Helions Bumpstead Gramophone Co. The Swallows, The Street, Botesdale, Suffolk IP22 1BP Tel 01379 890568