Country Town (1943)

More from our archives: film.britishcou...
The British Council Film Collection is an archive of more than 120 short documentary films made by the British Council during the 1940s designed to show the world how Britain lived, worked and played. Preserved by the BFI National Film Archive and digitised by means of a generous donation by Google, the films are now yours to view, to download and to play with for the first time.
Set in Boston, Lincolnshire, this short film aims to introduce the viewer to a typical, thriving, market town. Narrated by the friendly local newspaper editor, County Town focuses on the themes of community and industry, gently and genially exploring the changes brought about by World War 2.
This film is set in the town of Boston, Lincolnshire (identifiable by the often-shown tower of St Botolph's church, known locally as 'The Stump'), though no names are given in the film. Whilst the effects of the war are often mentioned, it is often as an aside, or presented as a positive change for the area. This film strongly promotes country living, presenting the town's inhabitants as hard-working, but happy. It also portrays the town as making a real contribution to the war effort, along with those who have moved out from the cities to live there.
It is speculated that the newspaper editor, credited as Philip Robinson, may actually be the editor of the Lincolnshire Standard, as the paper was/is owned by the Robinson family.
The man walking towards St Botolph's at the beginning of the film has been identified by the local parish committee as Mr Holton. He was the Clark of Works during the 1920's / 1930's restoration of the church, and then stayed on as the verger thereafter. He is depicted in vergers robes and can also be seen in one of the church's stained glass windows as a figure clad in green, holding books.
Subscribe to our channel for more: goo.gl/xs5AMi

[@geoffcrisp7225]

When only English was spoken with an accent. Destroyed by self serving politicians since the 1960's.

[@nemo6686]

Elected by self-aggrandizing voters...

[@peternagy-im4be]

Overthrow them then. You have the power. People's revolution.

[@pinchermartyn3959]

This type of living isn't allowed these days.

[@Paul-md8de]

@Johnny Rep yeah PROGRESS who'd of thought it eh !

[@andrestarazona6190]

They were happy without cellphones

[@robmc7215]

YEAH WITHOUT CELL PHONES MEANT PEOPLE COULD STAY ON TASK MUCH EASIER AND NOT HAVE TO DEAL WITH A PHONE RINGING ALL THE TIME

[@norrinradd3549]

They used their mobiles, they didn’t let the mobile companies use them, and that’s the difference.......... Ps, they were phone boxes, not cells, the cells were all in the cop shops and gaols....... :-)

[@kiwitrainguy]

I'm happy without a cellphone.

[@mathewgreen4099]

Many thanks for posting. Films like this are very pleasant to watch, as well as being informative.

[@Fintoman]

A quick check on the web revealed Harvey Bros livestock transporter are still in business.

[@anuradhainamdar8967]

That's good news to hear.

[@jimwalker5412]

The town is now part of Eastern Europe.

[@andywilcox9429]

We live 8 miles from Boston but it’s totally changed we shop in Lynne nowadays or at a push Spalding but Boston has been taken over totally

[@jimwalker5412]

@@keithbrown7681 I do, we have an allotment

[@jf7243]

What a beautiful cameo of Boston, Lincs during the war.

[@katief821]

I think that's my grandmother walking through the shot in the market stalls! And she's probably pushing my mother in the pram!

[@wayinfront1]

Which town was it? Ah, I see now from comments below it was Boston.

[@GeoffsSousChef]

wowwww.

[@brianjames9828]

If only things were like that in Boston Today

[@MrDaiseymay]

THANKS. I THOUGHT IT WAS BOSTON, WAS THAT THE FAMOUS ''STUMP''. ?

[@deejay3971]

if we still made videos like this the childern would probably grow up with a sense of identity and community value

[@gloriaking5321]

dee jay hopefully, but the schools soon change that, remember the council are a hard faced lot, the system does not want it do they, i think there musy be a way.but glad others feel as me and my son feell. i lived in corringham born in 1949 and still saw this and reaped the benifits.

[@MrDaiseymay]

I blame the EU

[@eshaibraheem4218]

They were pŕopaganda films. Do you want to feed today's children propaganda?

[@vernonjones3613]

There’s not many kids of 10 around hear who doesn’t know how to use a telephone well today there’s not many kids under 10 who doesn’t own a telephone. How times have changed but allass not for the better

[@highburydesign]

my brother's job in the 60s was converting home 'phones to dial 'phones. Had to show people how to dial a number; most people had no idea.

[@danielmalachi8793]

Simpler times, seemingly happier times... Old England

[@Time_Line_Archive_Project]

always make me wonder when people say that. simpler times? we live in an age now where people can have four children as a single parent and live off benefits without issue or challenge. All of their children fully equpped with iPads, iPhones, Xbox and PlayStation. If anything, life can be in England now, blissfully ignorant - wasting life away on pointless technology and free games, where a large part of society considers itself "entitled" NOT to work and that they should have everything for free with little to no effort. Films like this certainly do have something of a romantic feel to them,. but then of course it's in context to both the times and the visual aesthetics too. The 1940's was popular for its picturesque landscape, basically the beautiful. The result is that its easy for us to look back at this stuff and see just that, the beautiful. And not the harsh realities of it all really.

[@MrDaiseymay]

ignorant you mean

[@ceilingsandfloors]

yeah Britain in 1943 happier times...when people were losing their friends and family members en masse in the middle of fucking World War II.

[@gavinreid8351]

Middle of a war!

[@sheilapratt4914]

i dont fit in n

[@GeoffsSousChef]

I have a confession: I’m obsessed with England 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@Nipajim]

I'm obsessed with never returning ... !

[@richardcummins5465]

Cant go there today. Havnt got a passport!

[@patdavies78]

I used to live in Boston. It's amazing to see many familier places including the garage at the bottom of London Road, the road we used to live on.

[@crochetandcrashhelmets3505]

My home town, born and bred in Boston, Lincolnshire x

[@philforbes7467]

fiddled with then ?

[@raymondogle1803]

This is Boston in Lincolnshire see how much it has changed and not for the better.

[@suebradford890]

Interesting snippets in this film: the factory girls canning vegetables didn't have germ-free space suits/gloves on, just grabbed handfuls of beans and shoved 'em in the cans! Also the workers from outside the area going into the fields to pick the produce, as opposed to the East Europeans who come to do it now. "Yes, we're a healthy lot!" Yes because people weren't eating rubbish then. Everyone looked just the right size, no obesity. How different was life then, slower paced.

[@jonka1]

A healthy lot? Almost everyone smoked and men in particular often died before or just after retirement.

[@sarahstrong7174]

I doubt that people working all day & then attending an ARP meeting or Home Guard training in the evenings felt life was slow.

[@None-zc5vg]

@@jonka1 That was the case in my city street in the 1950s.

[@norrinradd3549]

The only reason, why the townies were able to go to the fields and do the jobs there, was because they had been doing them since they were kids, and were working with their parents instead of going to school(to make ends meet), so that they could pick the crops, but they were not good at reading and writing or any other thing that needed education, and that’s why I know so many people in the sixties/early seventies, who were the first in their families history that went to university......... And I for one think that our kids are better off being educated, than they are learning how to do back breaking work for a pittance(they got less as kids than adults), just to make the landowners richer than they already were at that time, and this is the best thing about leaving the bad old times, of where the majority of the people were ignorant because of the lack of education behind, and if they are ignorant now, it’s not because they have never had a chance of being educated, simply because their family was poor.!.!.!.!.!.

[@anuradhainamdar8967]

I agree, today dispite gloves on hands for canning we are not germ free, epidemics have increased even after 1918 Spanish flu like " Ebola" " " Avian flu " " H1N1" " Foot and mouth disease " and now the world swamping Pandemic " Coronavirus ".Which has killed more Americans than the second world war.

[@jacksugden8190]

I enjoyed that very much, what would my life had been like in 1943, 77 years ago in 2020, it was only 13 very long years before I was born in 1956, makes me wonder now the life of my late parents in WWII.

[@klbird]

I good look back. Market days are still held but its a different world today.

[@crossleydd42]

Interesting to see what my local film studio, Merton Park Studios', near Wimbledon, were producing during the war, doing their bit for the war effort. .Post-war, they made lots of crime films, notably ones narrated by Edgar :Lustgarten.

[@kiwitrainguy]

This film was directed by Julian Wintle who would go on to direct (or produce, I forget which) the TV series The Avengers in the 1960s.

[@paulbroderick8438]

Not a beached whale in sight! All elegantly slim and free of tattoos. Greetings from a Brit residing in the USA.

[@philthycat1408]

Yeh, that's what war rationing does to people.

[@norrinradd3549]

@@philthycat1408. I don’t believe that rationing in the US was that strict, and it’s not been carried on this long, so he must be in a gated community that doesn’t allow the fat tattooed yanks in.............

[@philthycat1408]

@@norrinradd3549 it's Britain.

[@norrinradd3549]

@@philthycat1408. I am thinking that you are possibly, confused, stupid or you suffer from attention span deficit, because he actually says, that he is, “a Brit residing in the USA”, and they’re the last six out of eight words in his very short comment.!.!.!.!.!. Which obviously means, that you’re either stupid, highly confused or you have the attention span of a gnat, I just can’t be bothered to work out which one, or more it is..............

[@philthycat1408]

@@norrinradd3549 feel better now child ?

[@robertsmith3672]

5 . St. Thomas parish rooms . Crown and Anchor pub. My first job as apprentice painter 1957.

[@scottmitcell3750]

So many white people ..who would have thunk it 🤔

[@gch8810]

That is a great thing. Britain is a white nation and will remain so. The foreign invasion will be stopped.

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

Millions of white Europeans killed millions of white Europeans at this time and they still are ..

[@harrytd]

Relish these films before the Wokists have them removed; lament the loss, despite its hardships, of a much happier and meaningful time and wake up to the fact that for all the technological advances, we are living among the ashes of civilisation.

[@iliketilly8002]

Idiotic comment about wokists.

[@harrytd]

@@iliketilly8002 An idiotic comment by a wokist

[@johnomelia2991]

So you’re complaining about not being able to see films like the film you’re commenting on? I certainly agree that you’re not ‘woke’ but it seems possible that you aren’t clear on what that means.

[@harrytd]

@@johnomelia2991 Knock it off with the sophistry. We all know what woke is and we suffer the destruction that follows in its wake.

[@harrytd]

@@iliketilly8002 Idiotic comment by a wokist.

[@yellowbelly1949]

This was when England was England,a Country worth dying for,now it is not !

[@vladtheimpala1]

Yes, but the poverty in the inner cities was off the scale. Worth dying for that?

[@rattytattyratnett]

Yes worth dying for. Many people from commonwealth countries such as India, Africa, Australia died fighting the Nazis and Japanese during the war.

[@jonka1]

It sounds like you've already died.

[@battlewaterloo]

@@vladtheimpala1 Prick

[@gch8810]

@@vladtheimpala1Yep. Having less material wealth has nothing to do with being a great country.

[@MimiPipoo]

Time is just a blast. This is barely 80 years ago and we see it as grey and distant but in 80 years time it's how we'll be looked at. All of us being forced to be satisfied and believe we are at the pinnacle of our advancement when that'll never be true.

[@repairworld2367]

It all ended in the late 1990's. I'm a Blackcountry man and that was when our industry started to be destroyed. I had a haulage business and there were many around, British owned. Dudley used to have an agricultural show at Himley Hall. Stourbridge had it's own hospital. We had a local livestock market. And an abbatoir. Marsh and Baxter's were well known sausage and meat purveyors known the world over. Stourbridge was famous for it's cut glass. Everything has gone. Nothing left of what I've just described.

[@Wench64]

I'm backcountry as well, great bridge high street died when they built another Asda, shut the market after the pandemic, one butchers left, all barbers, west brom shite, dudley shite, merry hill going the same way, I miss the 60s and 70s when you could get everything in the high street, even a wedding dress as well as food, the markets were brilliant, I miss those days, started going to Blackheath and that's changed over the years, to many charity shops

[@Wench64]

Also we had a devis, so by our school, my brother was 3rd generation at horsely piggott that got closed, now houses, but they said they still got a good order book, glass works houses, hale and hale and jeavons houses, gas works houses, all the factories that employed men have all gone, no wonder why I'm depressed, I'm 59 my son is 17 (to old to have him) he doesn't know what job to do, because there are no jobs round here anymore

[@tectorama]

I imagine most of these were shown at the cinema, to promote a feel good factor during WWII ? Interesting to look at now, but not everything was better then.

[@gavinreid8351]

Yes, a propaganda film/government information.

[@kiwitrainguy]

Similar films were probably being shown in Nazi Germany at the time also.

[@gch8810]

Things were better back then. Not perfect, but better.

[@philipashbourn1538]

Not many Lincolnshire accents to be heard. The locals were not allowed to speak - actors did the job. It took years before the media allowed working class people to have their own voice.

[@roastbeef1010]

Shame Boston is so bad today!

[@bluegtturbo]

It must have been a joy to be a farmer back then... All those land army girls with boyfriends overseas... 😊

[@peterjohnson617]

That was just wonderful,thank you so much. As a New Yorker I also live out in a country town. This is what made me want to come and see your country ,not cities like London. I have returned several times over the years and always to the country........Peace,pj

[@lawomega1]

Lovely to read it ,the help we had during WW2 from USA and many other countries saved us Brits ,us oldies never forget ,because as kids we were there (born 1939) When we saw a American serviceman in the street we used to run after ,got any gum chum ,we used to shout and nearly always they would give us gum or other sweets ,they always generous to us kids . On another compliment to our USA friends , the USA is still the bread basket of the world,and is freely given ,rgds JRL .

[@franksmith6637]

Our beautiful England so sad to see what it's become

[@TheTwopeesinapod]

I saw this as a lad growing up in London, unbelievable!!!

[@thehumblenarrator1381]

Im from Boston, this town, and it is sad to see how far downhill its gone.

[@peternagy-im4be]

For Boston read most UK towns.

[@jamessmith530]

No migrant workers in those days

[@johnathandaviddunster38]

My aunt was a IMMIGRANT she worked and payed taxes for more than 45years as a nurse wiping arses of arseholes who hate Johnny foreigner

[@peternagy-im4be]

​@@johnathandaviddunster38it's the sheer NUMBERS that people object to and i thoroughly agree. Indigenous people being shunted to one side by mass unwanted fcking immigration.

[@TheVickersDoorter]

A time when Britain wasn't trying to be "World Class" at everything. And the better for it.

[@madcarew5168]

Wot....no mosques!!!

[@wordsmith52]

Well done BFC for allowing everyone to see these films and the vital history that goes with them - unlike some bodies who try to restrict people from seeing and hearing productions because they want to make a fast buck and sell small extracts at ridiculous prices..

[@kiwitrainguy]

Denying people access to films such as these is a form of "rewriting history". I watched a documentary-drama about George Orwell the other day.

[@LimesRickie]

Love everything done at Merton Park Studios and this was no disappointment. Absolutely wonderful!

[@gru7472]

I watching this movie to improve my English Vocublary: Shoping centre, clothes , flowers Fishing Farmers , agriculture,fruit and vegetable, growing food for the whole nation , growing for over the sea . post offerser, Seed , examined sorated , Cinema, parks rollersketer felid , saterday dance

[@trollmeistergeneral3467]

Boston in Lincolnshire. Interesting stat; popn. of 22500 at that time, as the narrator tells us more than once. But 80 yrs later the official popn. Is only 35000 - I was expecting much more. BUT according to one reliable online source, Boston is probably the most dangerous medium sized town in the county. Crime levels off the Richter scale. So what went wrong?

[@craighamilton5570]

What we have lost !!!

[@peternagy-im4be]

Everything

[@Stevecamden]

I was looking on Google maps - the landscape is very flat. Never been to this part of the country- looks very nice

[@mrpvhillier-palmer3030]

We went to Lavenham and saw part of Lowland village. So I asked how this short film could be seen. I was told here on youtube. I think this gradually changed but for me it was very start of the 1980s that I saw the greatest change and not always for the better either!!

[@joesprinks4215]

1943!dont remeber muchabout it as I was three years old !!

[@davidclark8685]

Boston 1943....the year I was born.....just down the road .... Fishtoft Road. The house was called Romanica. My Grandfather, Capt. Charles Deakin, the local Dock and Harbour Master lived next door with his wife Lily. Their house was called Finlandia. The two houses in those days were quite isolated. I think there is a large pea factory opposite the houses now! So good to see the little piece of England where I was born! I still have childhood memories of the market in the town centre.

[@lincolnshire_skinhead890]

It’s a shame things aren’t the same anymore I’d love to grow up in Boston when it was like that I’m only 16

[@buffplums]

Blimey changes....you think you have seen changes chap... you should see what it’s like today... so it goes to show that the world never stands still, change is constant

[@jakmak1199]

Hope the old lady @ 8:17 got her alarm clock. 😁

[@welshlyn9097]

Where did it go so 😑

[@firosen5362]

Interesting to note..... this film was made in the middle of World War II..... so not quite as idyllic as it may seem!

[@regd.2263]

I just love music that goes with these sort of films

[@simontaylor2319]

Luv the 30's G A R A G E. - reminds me of a similar styled building - a svhool in Tottenhoe, Beds, Does this still exist....Listed if so?

[@substituteband]

Great film! Where did they find the looney Cockney woman asking about alarm clocks?

[@gavinreid8351]

This part of the country was, still is, popular with cockneys on holiday. Also during the war she may have moved to avoid the Blitz.

[@mredwardward]

@@gavinreid8351 Or for countless other reasons at any time. The idea that people didn't move around much in the past is total fiction.

[@farouqomaro598]

Love those bicycles. Have 3 of them myself.

[@anuradhainamdar8967]

On sports British council missed out County cricket.

[@MrCptjohn]

My home town I remember most othose fishing smacks ,and lived alongside south qauy ,I was a Boston fisherman beam trawling for pink shrimps in the wash,wonderfull memories of my childhood in the 1950s.

[@stephenholt4670]

I clocked the Boston Stump fairly early on, but found it interesting they never said the name of the place in this film. Thought the big reveal was coming at the end, but no... "In a place called.... ...Country Town!"

[@evolveausevolveaus]

Love these old brit docos 👌

[@rogbow69]

wouldn't it be fantastic if these old movies of wartime England were colourised

[@annphillips4915]

NO!!!

[@highburydesign]

it's been done now, finally. Does look better in colour.

[@philforbes7467]

"Theres Bill Garson who runs the forge we saw earlier, he bowls a right good wood" said his grandchildren never

[@GeoffsSousChef]

I think I’m partial to the Coastal Village film 😊 that’s my dream existence after watching 7 seasons of Doc Martin

[@ianwatt9904]

Things change, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill. Fr Richard Coles served his curacy in Boston. Back then a gay man would have found it impossible.

[@terranceparsons5185]

Ah yes! All the men wore hats and smoked pipes, using them to point with, the women kept home and the children were seen and not heard.

[@williamusher3633]

Ahh even nostalgia isn't what it used to be

[@heathstjohn6775]

Nice to see reminders of what people no longer value ; not because I've any hope that they'll return , but , just as a permanent record of comparison against which today's slobs may be compared. Some examples should be : smartly dressed , ( make that clothed , as well ) , bodies , nearly all slim , with the skins not sheepishly asking us to remember they need to breathe , by peeking out between any body area accidentally-uncovered by tattoos ; no f-ing and b-ing as part of the conversational daily exchange , included in the commentary ; REAL natives , of mostly country , and some town , doing between play , purposeful things , rather than venturing out to buy another ripped pair of trousers , or an object they don't need , to add to their unworn and unused objects at home , which themselves haven't satisfied , etc.. Thanks very much for uploading it.

[@plumduff3303]

You ever read the child of the jago?

[@heathstjohn6775]

@@plumduff3303 Hello. "Read", no; but just seen their website, thanks to your lead. I'd say it was Steampunk. Some nice items, between the outrè. I like the Kneebone Jacket, in Bouclè; and the Black Teach. Thanks very much for the lead.

[@julianwaugh968]

I lived near Guildford in Surrey, it changed a lot over the years, no more cattle market and the old brewery was knocked down a sports center was built to replace the indoor Victorian one. Lovely town.

[@rosscityofliverpool.983]

Looks so peaceful .

[@MrDaiseymay]

cos it's fiction

[@edwardkerrigan5356]

@@MrDaiseymay You really are bitter and ignorant.

[@gch8810]

@@MrDaiseymayQuit shilling for the globalists.

[@vincekerrigan8300]

​@@MrDaiseymayNo it isn't!

[@barbarapineda5730]

Needs transportation. A bonnet. 🚗 🚘 🚔.

[@pip110.5]

Oh what I wouldn’t give to go back the to the good old days. No central heating or mobile phones. I’m 70 years now and remember the good old days.

[@cornerstoneenglishinstitut3058]

regards from cornerstone.

[@haroldpearson6025]

I was born in Birmingham in 1941. My dad was a driver on the LMS railway. He and my mum were often criticised by neighbours wanting to know why he was not off fighting. But railway crews faced their own dangers.

[@chrisblackmore6159]

A hugely responsible and necessary job back then, fraught with its own dangers of bombing and transporting of dangerous loads. as well as all the critical ones of food etc...we wouldn't have got very far without the railways!

[@hassanhamadtou8764]

It's very interesting.

[@utpalkumar6163]

suitable all learns...

[@joydeepdhar5198]

❤good one

[@ОльгаВикторовна-ц1ы]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@MrDaiseymay]

Blimey, I was 2 then.

[@fredfarnackle5455]

I was three and well remember the 40's, 50's and 60's. Emigrated to Australia in 1972, I could see that the Common Market (as it was called then) was going to end in tears. Thank goodness people woke up and voted to leave the EU - that (EU) was a debacle and a waste of money!

[@MrDaiseymay]

@@fredfarnackle5455 THANKS FOR SHARING. I'M AFRAID WE WERE TRICKED, WE NEVER GOT A FULL BREXIT.

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

No NHS, No guaranteed secondary education, less treatments for illnesses, longevity less than now.

[@gch8810]

Oh no, how could they have managed (sarcasm). They did just fine without those things and they led much healthier and fuller lives.

[@NSResponder]

Price controls are idiotic. -jcr

[@barbarapineda5730]

It stated their health systems. In the yrs 1945s miss waked up. And shut fuck down.okay.

[@martynjones8560]

Easy to see how inbreeding might have been a problem - certainly the 2016 referendum result from Boston points in that direction ...

[@gch8810]

Sounds like a lot of cope.

[@tazzmania4986]

Ely ?

[@TheCraggym]

Tazz Mania Boston

[@MrDaiseymay]

read the info above

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

I live there so know i knowi am scum. Thank you

[@newroundheadcommandos2589]

Allas paradise lost , dont u love multiculturism .😊

[@peternagy-im4be]

Nope. Don't want it and don't welcome it. An idea born of by fcking imbeciles.

[@pisstinpete4700]

Before the post office was public enemy no 1