English Harvest (1938)

This early Dufaycolor documentary from Humphrey Jennings focuses on an August harvest in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. The old makes way for the new as the trusty old scythe bows down to the horse-drawn binder and plough. Hard work, flat caps and pipes abound as we see the workers downing midday ale for sustenance and taking a break at 5 to sit in the fields for a cup of tea brought to them by their wives. The 'playground of the town' and 'workshop of the country', alias the great British countryside, has never looked better.
All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit www.bfi.org.uk/...

[@BR-bj3ot]

An ahhhhhhh moment. Praise God that these films are still around for who do not remember these times.

[@johnedwards1685]

There’s more to this than a warm harvest. This breathless summer was the last of an old England. A terrible war was only a year away. Two summers later the skies burned over these fields And the glow from the fires in London could be seen fifty miles away. Four summers later and many of the men and boys in these fields were dead, Scattered across battlefields half a world away never to return. Let them have this harvest, A harvest in the sun, before the darkness came.

[@krischan8526]

True words. That's all, what I can say.

[@montyzumazoom1337]

And the work was done by hand or with horses, but after the war came mechanisation and that changed the shape of farming and the landscape forever. People working the land didn’t have a “ploughman’s lunch” either, this was an invention. They went to work with a flask of cold tea and some bread and cheese.

[@pinarellolimoncello]

that's chirpie of you to remind us all, got anything uplifting to say..

[@Davidudka]

Lovely words John and so true. You are right... "Let them have this harvest".

[@leonblittle226]

And in a year all hell broke loose. Nothing was ever the same again.

[@mcpug10]

I remember this era very clearly, when as a child I was living on a farm in Wales to escape the bombing in Liverpool. Every scene in this film was familiar to me and I recall helping with the horses in some small way. The meals that the farmers and hired help ate at the end of the work day were huge and they earned them. What a wonderful trip down memory lane for me,

[@kiwiontheinternet5810]

Thats awesome! My great grandparents were born in the early 30s

[@barkebaat]

@@kiwiontheinternet5810 : pffft! that's nothing... my father was born in 1930. His father even before that. I'm surprised you're old enough to know how to write :-)

[@sauravbasu8805]

What did they eat mostly in their meals at that time ?

[@rogersinclair2772]

@@barkebaat I can beat you at that game. My father was born in 1910 and my grandfather was born in 1874. He fought in the Second Anglo-Boer War. My mothers father was born in 1880 and was 23 when the Wright brothers first flew in spite of his father swearing blind that man would never get off the ground. He lived to see Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon. From horse and wagons to Lunar exploration in one lifetime. Kiwiontheinternet5810 has no need of writing, just a touch screen.

[@janepage3608]

@@sauravbasu8805 depends on the place, but for sure a lot was bread and potatoes. Then cheese and a small amount of meat for protein, pork was the cheapest. Most country families had a pig in a stye at the back of the house. It was cheap to feed.

[@PhilipGeorgeHarfleet]

Ahh, those long gone days. I was 3 years old when this film was made. One year later many of these farm fields, especially in Lincolnshire, were turned into RAF airfields and thousands ofL Lancaster bombers were housed in these fields. Small fields of corn and other cereal crops no longer exist. Huge acreages have taken over, more like endless prairies where massive combine harvesters roam, doing the work of a hundred or more men. Nothing stays forever, more's the pity. Lovely nostalgic film. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[@Sennmut]

A better time.

[@jacobeksor6088]

Wonderful story.

[@daidegan]

... just like in USA; family farms are almost extant!

[@andy199121]

And unfortunately all those airfields are now being tarmaced and turned into ‘garden villages’. Apparently they’re brownfield sites that can’t be returned to their former beauty

[@PhattSpicer]

@@andy199121 Yes it's fascinating really. A lot were returned to agricultural purposes post war. In some cases that took a number of years. One example near me is an old airfield in Fersfield in Norfolk. It briefly became a motor racing circuit post war, until they decided to use Snetterton for that. A lot of the concrete road ways and taxiing ways (I presume) are still there and used to accommodate large machinery these days. In the end these proved useful. Resourceful bunch are farmers. I've always found it interesting looking on google maps. Quite a lot were returned. I'm sure there's all manner of old military buildings buried in the trees.

[@mohitmaksat]

I am from India and from a family of farmers and I find a wide cultural connect to this film and thus conclude that farming is not a profession its a religion and all those who practice this religion have common culture irrespective of country caste race or religion its was both a surprise and a relief to see that britishers also worked hard in fields as we did in India still they were unable to connect to the feelings of Indian peageant farmers, again surprises me anyway thanks BFI for this

[@yuelingchu4361]

I'd like to think the British farmers would have connected to the Indian farmers. As you suggest, farming is a common language.

[@alostpilgrimsjourney5953]

I will tell you for a fact that British farmers respect other farmers across the earth, where ever they may be found.

[@mickymantle3233]

I'd like to get into this film...an never come back.

[@p.istaker8862]

@@rogerspeed4413 And don't forget the landowner, who in some cases as good as owned you and the home you live in. The sixteen hour days. The lack of free health care and no pension.

[@iamthestig1]

@@rogerspeed4413 No double glazing, either. You'd freeze outside AND inside. Screw that.

[@moimaloy8870]

World war was started two years after this film was made!

[@bobbbxxx]

You wouldn't if you had to work for a living. Fifteen minutes of that backbreaking work of hand scything wheat, let alone a 14 hour work day would have you begging to be transported back to 2019.

[@portcullis5622]

I know what you mean as the countryside was relatively unspoilt back then, but it looks like bloody hard work. The other problem on the horizon was that a certain, short-arsed Austrian man with insecurities and anger management issues might have necessitated a one way trip to Europe a year or two later!

[@UrukEngineer]

I love it when he says "opening the road for modern machines" and a horse-drawn buggy enters the scene.

[@piggypiggypig1746]

What ever will they think of next.

[@ammulhare1644]

It is a sheaf binding machine. Forerunner to the 100% machine, the combine harvester!

[@jamesburns2312]

I was still working like those farmers in late 80' with my grandparents...I was REALLY lucky to just be involved in the last push of gone by era..it was in Poland💔

[@canadude2010]

cool...probably why things are still relatively ok in that part of the world as they at least try to hold to old time ethics and values there....

[@MsVanorak]

My Dad had his tea on the field in the harvest until he retired in 2005. It was exciting taking a picnic for us all when I was a child in the 1960's. We didn't have an expectation about going out for days and being entertained because when you have livestock you don't go far from home for very long. I was looking at some photos of us recently and the summers were as good as I thought I remembered them - we were all tanned and freckled.

[@crowhillian58]

@I'LL BE BACK ! Or more likely a melodrama!

[@MsVanorak]

@@crowhillian58 no - sunshine was good for you in those days - vitamin C from sunshine rather than out of a bottle with MSG and aspartame.

[@gettinfedup1814]

i am 73 now . but can remember in 1963 , 4 of us with wooden 2 handed sythes cutting a field of grass for hay it was a long hard day and we got 2 shillings and sixpence each from the farmer.He was a real old timer who would not have machines on his land.

[@gettinfedup1814]

@Daniel Thompson i was 16 then working on a farm , not the one where i cut the hay by hand. I was living away from home in village lodgings, with 2 meals a day my rent was £3 10 shillings.my wage was £4.00.

[@paulbaumer8210]

Dude. 2s 6d is about £2.00 in today's money. If you worked all day for £2.00 you must have been nuts. No wonder he didn't need machines if he could find people willing to work for 25p an hour.

[@gettinfedup1814]

@@paulbaumer8210 in 1963 the average wage in the UK for manual work was£4.00 a week so 2/6 was not great but ok.In 1968 i was into plumbing and got £20.00 a week,that was good money.

[@blvp2145]

@@gettinfedup1814 Very good money.

[@disco3guy]

A half crown for a day's work.... 😬

[@jeffatkins6890]

Fabulous entertainment took me back to 1956 , I’d have been 6 years old and it was exactly like my grandparents are alive today

[@lancashireartist]

Where did it all go wrong? That’s how it should be. In tune with nature.

[@chrishultgren777]

when the bankers tricked these workers into fighting each other is when. Doing the same in that country that starts with a "U" up to the present day.

[@dangerman8625]

The pace of work, leisurely, its good to see people sitting down together.

[@philipprint9510]

Brutal hardwork made men old at 50. I can remember so many village chaps going about their day with a smile on their face and a whistled tune on their lips.

[@marylowrey8911]

Agreed. Yet the leaness on all these people is striking, and their propensity for walking, carrying and balancing. Their skill with tools! The drink was small beer, low alcohol content and the picnic modest and small portions.

[@tomburnett4812]

Reminds me of my grandad. Happy childhood memories in simpler times

[@johnathanryan2117]

It would be nice to think that the young lad who gets a gill of ale of the young girl drinking tea may still be alive 82 years on..and that they could see this footage. Well dressed grafters working hard, ' modern ' machines worked by horses, and plenty of fresh air and exercise. To be fair, probably wasn't as idyllic two month later when it was tipping down and the winds got up. Beautiful footage of a time that's gone but sometimes feels like it's just slightly out of reach. 12 months later their lives change forever, looking at some of the men they'd probably been through it twenty years before too.

[@mikewalrus4763]

If that be a Gill then remind me to visit you if you ever gets a pub, that be nearer 2 gill

[@imapaine-diaz4451]

I believe those men would be offended if you called them "Grafters"! I suppose you meant to say "Gaffers"?

[@mikewalrus4763]

@@imapaine-diaz4451 More to the point do you understand the difference - it appears not!

[@georgerenton965]

Maybe your confusing grafters with grifters ?

[@willyspinney1959]

@@imapaine-diaz4451 A grafter is someone who works hard. A gaffer is someone who the boss, particularly of manual workers.

[@mreckes9967]

I've stooked grain behind a horse drawn binder in Scotland back in the 60's when we went to the uk to catchup with all the family, great memories.

[@BluebirdFrank]

Life of such simplicity and purpose not the human cesspit of today’s society 😔

[@mriggst]

I only though of the word cesspit a few hours ago while coming out of my slumber and its much worse now in 2024.

[@truthforall1303]

Nowadays most people go around in a drone like way and if one dares to say good morning they look at you with a blank face. I’ve gone back in time and now we live a simple life on our little piece of land of heaven in Devon

[@BatAtBat]

Farmers back then were dressed better than most people today

[@ygtekin]

When somebody films my work, I would be dressed like a groom

[@wilfridwibblesworth2613]

Most people in this country will soon be dressed like Darth Vader... BY LAW! We're only halfway there now.

[@tommothedog]

I think they put on their best because the cameras were coming!

[@glpilpi6209]

My grandad worked on the land all his life , he used to wear the same waistcoat style and big cap , he died in the mid 1960s

[@oltedders]

@@tommothedog This was standard working apparel, especially the vest, since shirts were considered to be underwear and was nearly covered completely once a coat and tie was put on.

[@lindsayrogers6690]

My Grandad did exactly this in Lancashire. He worked some days from 4am until midnight literally making hay whilst the sun shone and it was dry enough to harvest. He could, however, still get a beer at his local pub on his way home. Absolute legend!

[@ajrwilde14]

so he only had 4 hrs sleep?

[@lindsayrogers6690]

Alice Wilde yep, making hay whilst the sun shone. It was vital that the harvest was brought in at the right time and it could take 3 days. Remarkable people, remarkable times.

[@howardmckeown7187]

@@ajrwilde14 hired labourer's hours were dawn to dusk year round

[@rgsnr8702]

what is England without its plough and horse a history of the land of farms as the seasons take their course the past is our heritage and will always be not all change is good as a changing future we see less is our resolve to face a challenge when strength is needed when history gives us lessons that needs to be heeded the next generation is becoming labour free but where is the effort that made the job a reward in itself to me

[@muckshiftingmaestro7598]

My grandad did this for a living in Norfolk back in the twenties and thirties, long days of hard graft, when men were proud of their work.

[@shanemanchester]

100% agree. I work in a small, family workshop. No better feeling than being tired/sweaty at home time.

[@hannecatton2179]

And beholden to the farm owners.

[@cosmiccoepiece2623]

Both my grandads and dad too. Dad once said there wasn’t much stealing because everyone had the same,work boots work jacket and a bike.

[@gustavmeyrink_2.0]

And crippled by the age of 50 without a pension or healthcare.

[@shanemanchester]

Crippled? These are the chaps that live into their ‘90’s. My Irish grandparents the same. All four got to their ‘90’s. Worked outdoors all their lives.

[@cameronbennett797]

This is bloody brilliant. This was my family in Gloucestershire throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Amazing.

[@richardstuart325]

The same for my family in Lancashire. But I do remember seeing my grandparents worn down by decades of grinding drudgery. The reality appeared far from the rural idyll conjured up by this film.

[@rogertroughton2280]

Replace the horses with a 1950's tractor and this was how my family harvested oats in Cumbria right up to 1980. Opened out with a scythe, cut with a binder, stacks built and thatched with sieves. No ale, but tea brought out to the field in an enamel jug. Wonderful film.

[@londonwestman1]

We were looking to buy a farm around Cumbria in about 1978 - actually bought in Lancashire.. But as we looked around things were mechanised almost everywhere. I've only once seen stacks (?stooks) after harvest in the UK so I think all that was gone by 1980. We bought a little grey Fergie and we were looked on as quaintly old fashioned. The old-style, scissors-cut mower was also pretty much a museum piece by that time. The current thing would be a Massey Ferguson 35 3-cylinder red tractor - and for hay it was all square bails. (Still have the Fergie which, I think will be seventy years old this year.)

[@chanctonbury63]

Only 75 years ago and look at the "machinery"!!

[@alangknowles]

There were horse-drawn combine harvesters around then. But not widely used in UK.

[@Firby1988]

That machinery could well be stored in a barn somewhere still intact and in working order . Would like to see how well this modern junk would fair after 75 years

[@davidkepley4396]

@@alangknowles Horse drawn equipment largely disappeared in the US beginning in the 1920s due to large acreage farms in the vast western wheat belt regions that spurred the development of mechanized farming. Tractors were more economical to pull plows and "Combine" reapers than horses without the bother and the continuous expense associated with draft animals. Self propelled Combines such as the International Harvester 123 SP were very much on the scene in the late 1940s. Some farms in the wetter regions continued to rely on older methods as a way to minimize damp weather and possible spoilage until the grain was dry enough for separation.

[@garethifan1034]

@@davidkepley4396 Very interesting to know how quickly American farming developed. In those days..America ruled the world in most things and we got to know about it a few years later.

[@chrisfryer3118]

@Johnny RoadTrain The last time a cereal farmer made decent money was 1977, in the UK. According to my mate Billy, a tenant farmer. Increased production just means a lower price at market. When it were horses doing the job, typically an 1/8th of crop was oats, for the horses. Still, I never see 2 tractors make another one.

[@robertpowell7672]

I remember the tail end of this era. The men were poor. A pint at the local for the unmarried ones. No cars, and they were all thin - predictably. It is a romantic image here, reality was different.

[@richardstuart325]

Grinding relentless work. My grandparents lived it.

[@MrPeachblossom]

@@richardstuart325 same here both parents and grandparents farmed,,hard work true.all lived well into there 80.s never a day in hospital or illness,never complained about there lives either..just the way it was back then

[@andyrbush]

It was a wonderful life even though it was hard. Not thin, just not fat and idle. People helped each other then.

[@dobsondwd]

that maybe true but i suppose people resonate with it just compared to the madness we have now and it was at least still england

[@andyrbush]

@@dobsondwd In those days wives did not need to work other than help on the farm. Poor is when you can't afford to live, but people managed perfectly well.

[@samspringer7726]

What an amazing video. Back in the days when people worked hard and had pride in their jobs. I think a few of today`s youth should watch this. There`s no computers here just hard graft.

[@ajrwilde14]

it's not 'today's youth' who designed the useless theory-based education system, nor them who destroyed rural jobs with machiney, nor them who prefer to pay Portugese migrant workers for less than a British person needs to live on

[@sandragreenwood4180]

When people really did work wonderful.

[@ushoys]

sandra greenwood Billions of people in this world still really do work.

[@alanblissett9834]

sandra greenwood poor sods didn’t know what was just 1 year away

[@paulbaumer8210]

@Johnny RoadTrain Why would anyone be happy toiling in a field all day for tuppence?

[@paulbaumer8210]

@Johnny RoadTrain What wonderful and fulfilling lives they led! You're wrong about the newspaper, though. Newspapers had more than one use in those days.

[@Makeyourselfbig]

@@paulbaumer8210 Grinding labour in all weathers for long boring hours, lousy money and warm beer on land you didn't even own. And your kids can waste their lives carrying it on after you die. Fantastic. What could be better besides just about anything.

[@DenisMclean-e9o]

Always sad to think no one in the film is with us. Very much a lovely time capsule.

[@freebornjohn2687]

This could be my parents and grandad, just before my dad went to war and was away for 5 years. They had two labourers who helped at the weekend, who were coal miners during the week and wanted something to do at the weekend. I remember them first thing on a Saturday sticking the water hose in their mouths and drinking like a horse to help with their hangovers and then proceed to light up a smoke. People on farms were brought up on never ending hard work and for the ones that keep dairy cows it started and ended with milking their herd by hand.

[@TheSuperHarrygeorge]

Heartbreaking and painful to watch a lost England.

[@lyt_w8t]

Who loves their grand parents?!

[@seanhazlewood634]

My Grandfathers Family lives and his Brothers worked with the family on a tenant farm in South Yorkshire in the 1930s following years of being a family of miners I have a lovely memory of my dad telling me about those hard but happy times before and during the War My Uncle Len was the Ploughman and gained many trophies in competitions and we have photo of him with 2 Silver greys Ploughing one of the large fields what a lovely picture he was the Ploughman, And I have. Picture of my Grandads other brother Willis Feeding the livestock with Pony traps in the back ground he was the herdsman of the family whilst my Grandads other brothers worked down the Mines as these were essential jobs however my Grandad did survive the War as the only serving solider anyway thankyou for showing this beautiful inicent period of farming life long forgotten Regards Sean

[@MsVanorak]

My Great Grandad used to plough competitively and I have a picture of him with a pair of dapple greys. Rosettes and place cards pinned to the beams in the stable. I can't think when the last time was that I saw a grey shire horse. It's all Clydesdales at the moment. I hate fashion when it extends to animals.

[@skaboosh]

Some things are better now and some things are worse now.... these are great films

[@delavalmilker]

As a farmer myself (in Nebraska) I find these movies fascinating. And I feel a sort of kinship with the guys in this film. I'm somewhat surprised that in 1938 that British agriculture still wasn't mechanized nearly as much as here in the U.S. At this time, combine harvesters were already prevalent in my area. Horses had largely vanished. The scything and pitching of shocks by hand must have been exhausting work.

[@erichamilton5932]

Took time before English agriculture become mechanized.

[@yuelingchu4361]

Yes widespread American mechanisation happened earlier.

[@mikeross4]

I can remember my father cutting a swathe round a field of oats so that the binder could come in and harvest the crop. This was in the early 50s in North East Scotland on our small rented farm and the binder was drawn by a tractor. His scythe was a simple one without the metal attachment and he was a master at using it. I could neve4 get the hang of it! A happy childhood!

[@miltonwelch4177]

Hard workers like this bring a thoughts about financier who is in "futures market" and how we lost common sense.

[@ashbytimuk]

For all those who want to get dewy eyed about "The good old days" let me tell you that my Mum's family were farmers and growers before (and after) World War II and being in agriculture then was very far from an idyllic life. So much cheap food was imported into the UK from abroad that prices for home grown produce were low and thus family incomes were as well. The revolution in farming practices that, by necessity, the war provoked were nothing short of revolutionary. Far more mechanisation and new techniques together with the bringing into cultivation of marginal land resulted in a doubling of output so that by the end of the war UK farmers were producing two thirds of the food necessary to feed the nation as against only one third before it. And we benefit from the legacy of that today. UK agriculture is amongst the most efficient and productive in the world. Some may mourn the passing of horses and hand scythes but my forebears most certainly did not.

[@BradBrassman]

Yes, but its all what my mum used to call, "Lark rise to Rose Tinted Candleford." They were certainly simpler times but as George Ewart Evans states, in his Horse in the Furrow, "The set-up on some of the farms during these years as related by the old horsemen, was anything but idyllic; and the description they gave of the rivalry, back-biting and sometimes open malice that existed, even among the men themselves, should be taken into account when there is any impulse to depict the countryside under the old order as a haven of peace and contentment (p.258).

[@nullvoid564]

i think its mostly the breakdown of the family and how people are much more isolated and cant put a name a single person on their street etc

[@willdatsun]

however modern farming went too far, depleted soil, too many pesticides, fungecides, herbicides, modern (non organic) food lacks nutrients and has chemical residues, the soil doesn't drain properly , (unhealthy soil.. no worms etc) and very low employment due to giant machinery

[@jonka1]

Perhaps Bethoven is a little dramatic as a background to this gentle study of rural life. Vaughan Williams might have fitted better.

[@justanutherguy2338]

Mmm, maybe, I thought the same initially, but it is the Pastoral symphony, so it's quite bucolic. "The Lark Ascending" would be a bit too slow perhaps? It's also 1938 and I imagine things German might not have been received so openly a year later.

[@postscript67]

@@justanutherguy2338 You imagine wrong. Have a look at Humphrey Jennings' later film "Diary for Timothy" which shows one of Dame Myra Hess's wartime concerts in the National Gallery and the narrator makes the very point that the music is German.

[@adrianlarkins7259]

Wonderful. Not a tractor in sight. Just lovable horses. And no horrible modern buildings in the background. I bet that home brew tasted like nectar.

[@bachandefi]

Idyllic it might well be but I'm afraid there would be a lot of hungry people it the UK if we went back to horse power and the old fashioned buildings. I remember when I was a young un, my father would have loads of help for harvest as men were very happy to earn extra money in the evenings to load and unload the bales of hay and sheaves of corn. A few years later when I left school, it was getting more and more difficult to find the casual labour and eventually we had to get fully mechanised. I tell my youngsters all about those days with my mother bringing supper out to the fields after she and my father had been turning the hay all day and baling, and the barrel of cider in the barn for the men to help themselves. Wonderful days but everything has had to move on.

[@bachandefi]

Exactly. Society has gone soft and many expect to be kept by the working man.

[@iamthestig1]

Bloody tractors. Half the stuff these farmers use could be towed on a Ranger, an L200 or an F150.

[@nottmjas]

That sure looks like an electricity pylon hovering above the trees on the right of the sceen at the 5:00 mark

[@thetessellater9163]

Truly sustainable way of life, which got shot down, along with so many aircraftmen, in the war! Not a whiff of diesel or air pollution, just skill, knowledge, experience and sweat. Not much chance of obesity either, with good wholesome unprocessed food. Modern life is a complete disaster in comparison - what a crazy world we have created for ourselves - all in the name of so-called progress. It will come again.

[@paulbaumer8210]

There wasn't much chance of obesity in concentration camps, etiher. It is a simple function of not having enough to eat. So much for 'good wholesome unprocessed food', eh? Strange that they died so young with all that 'goodness' in their lives...

[@TellyWatcher1997]

My father worked the land, as a 12 year old child, in Norfolk. He cycled twenty, or so, miles from Norwich to plough a ten acre field with an old sway-backed horse. He was paid 6d (six old pence or about two and half new pence/five US cents) for his long day's work. He was, like many young men, reasonably pleased when, in 1939, the escape route out of abject poverty presented itself (the Great Depression hit Europe as it did the USA). He went away to sea to fight in WW2 by means of his Royal Naval service. Life was hard in the 1930's if you were a peasant and only improved in the post-war period with the welfare state, universal healthcare and compulsory education for children. These were not halcyon days, as shown in this film, scything was back-breaking work and being out in the sun all day was a life-shortening existence. Just as many, if not more, dangerous chemicals were used on the land and horses didn't have the best time most of the time. I look at these films through the lens of one who knows how tough it was for my father's generation. If you happened to be a landowner then life was a bit better and if you owned the land and leased it to others it was better still. Great film though. Only a year after that, women were working the land as the men were away on the front lines (unless in reserved occupations) - yet the women of our land army probably still had to organise their own tea.......

[@Saurabh.up81]

Thanks for saying this. There was no 'golden past', especially for the working class, the poor and the marginalized.

[@bovellois]

Indeed, hired hands slept in barns and above the horse manger on cold nights. Until social laws were passed in 1936, when employers had to provide decent living quarters. Some workers missed sleeping in the warm barn, only because they didn't know anything else and they had been convinced that it was their place. Some landlords didn't like the new social laws, for obvious reasons.

[@BloodOfYeshuaMessiah]

*A time when no one considered themselves a "victim"...they worked hard, enjoyed life and got on with it !*

[@Makeyourselfbig]

What life? I'll bet most of those people never enjoyed a holiday in their entire lives. They were just working all the time in all weathers, the sun wasn't always shining, and for little reward. Born poor and died poor. Up in the early hours. Worked till it was too dark to see. This is just an idealised view of farming life. Now it's all done by machines and only a fraction of the population work on farms.

[@Dabhach1]

@@Makeyourselfbig You're not wrong. Nostalgia isn't about what was, it's about what you'd like to be.

[@imperialus1]

Fun fact! Two years before this, 20,000 assorted anti-fascists got into a big ol' knock down drag out fight with the Met after the police were trying to protect a march for the British Union of Fascists. Take off the nostalgia goggles.

[@Makeyourselfbig]

@Eve Oakley Accepted their lot. Knew their place. Knew their place like happy little drones. Yes sir, no sir three bags full sir! No ambition at all. Over educated? I'll bet I couldn't accuse you of that.

[@brosefmcman8264]

@@Makeyourselfbig never worked a day in his life. He is a good government mule. Talk about a drone 🙄

[@jeffrawe6486]

Not one of the workers overweight, wearing waistcoats and hats... going home to a loving family. Please can we put the clock back and live that life.

[@paulbaumer8210]

Yeah. Put the clock back to when the children had rickets, and life expectancy for a man - after a life of toil for a few coppers - was 48. No thanks.

[@Climpus]

'..loving family...'? Anymore so than now?

[@gustavmeyrink_2.0]

Loving family? When divorce was almost impossible, domestic violence and rape within a marriage were not recognized crimes? Yeah, the rose-tinted glasses of uncritical nostalgia are great, aren't they?

[@Climpus]

@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Yes indeed

[@paulbaumer8210]

@I'LL BE BACK ! 48 in 1900 in the UK. Three score and ten was the Bible. We were healthier in Biblical times than Victorian times.

[@hannecatton2179]

Somewhat of a ´rose_tinted view´ of life on the land. Generally it was a life of back- breaking work all year round with a real risk of injury and disease . Second only to mining in terms of injury and death. Today the risk has been greatly reduced but wages are still relatively low.

[@richardstuart325]

Indeed. My grandparents lived this life and I remember seeing them ground down by decades of relentless drudgery.

[@lindseytaylor-guthartz1236]

Yup and no NHS, no antibiotics, no prospects if you were bright and your parents were poor, and few options for women beyond being wives and mothers. Yes there were good things about it but don't let's pretend we'd all enjoy it.

[@VictoriasRoses]

I love this. They sure did dress nicer than we do. Even to do farm work.

[@paulbaumer8210]

LMAO! They are wearing their 'Sunday best" for the filming - which would have been an incredibly glamorous event for them. Generally they wore ragged, dirty clothes in the field - or simple smocks.

[@richardsinger01]

Paul Baumer no I don’t think so at all.

[@paulbaumer8210]

@@richardsinger01 Oh really? You think they all dressed up posh to go and work in the fields in all weathers? When they could barely afford to put bread on the table? Yeah, right.

[@georgerenton965]

Don’t listen to them RebeccasRoses. Dad was born in 1918. Started working when he was 8, drove horse drawn wagons, then lorries till he was 48, even in the army in WW2. When he went to work ( driving fresh fish from Scotland to the fish markets in England ) he always wore clean bibs n braces ( overalls ) polished boots, hair combed. Neighbour commented that he was a dead ringer for Dean Martin. Dad thought that Dean was talentless and Jerry Lewis carried him, but none the less, workers back in the day didn’t all run around like a lot of scruff. Dad came to Canada in 65, finished out his years as a crane operator with Ontario Hydro. Never missed a days work that I can recall.

[@paulbaumer8210]

@@georgerenton965 So how would your dad's 'polished boots' and 'clean bibs and braces' have fared if he was working in a rainy field all day shovelling manure in England in November? You guys make me laugh.... romanticising a time when the standard of living was MUCH lower than today. Those people would swap their lives then for our lives now in a heartbeat. For a start they's add twenty years to their life expectancy.

[@jazko]

Back when people were much more connected, than now.

[@paulbaumer8210]

That's a function of slums. You get to 'connect' with your extended family, friends and neighbours when you all live in the same cellar, and 50 people have to use the same outside toilet.

[@paulbaumer8210]

@Streetwise Tal You're having a laugh. 1930s England was a third world country compared with today by any indicator you care to choose: i.e. child mortality, life expectancy, average wage, social safety nets and education level. Pretending otherwise is just throwing your toys out of the pram because you have some kind of erroneous and bigoted point to make. Learn some history.

[@uPenguin]

You think so? I would say people are definitely far more connected today.

[@calbotinho]

friendly reminder WW2 occurred the year after this video

[@wallyjumblatt]

@@uPenguin I think the original poster may have meant more connected with the land. Few are these days in Britain. A mountain biker, say, can talk about enjoying the countryside, yet he will ride down a country road in total ignorance of the crops in the field and the names of flowers, trees and birds. It takes effort to do so, but few bother. There are too many distractions.

[@alanstarkie2001]

Life could be hard back in those days but when it was good, it was very good...

[@phubblewubbphubblewubb]

I remember using a scythe to clear the footpaths as a volunteer in the 80's, it was handed down to me by an old boy in the village, I used to spend many happy hours swathing down the weeds and grasses whilst my patient Cob munched the cow parsley. We also burned the stubble, we watched the wind direction and away it went. Fields were left fallow and sheep cleared the rubbish the cattle and horses declined. Muck was spread in November and not ploughed in until March. So much has changed so fast and not for the better.

[@paperchain1232]

I could cry- my stepfather was 13 when this film was made and has farmed in Cambs all his life. What a lovely scene💝

[@chanctonbury63]

Imagine the first cut with your scythe, knowing you only had another 100 acres to do!

[@rickremco6275]

I think the film said he was only clearing the way for the 'machine'

[@rogertroughton2280]

Just cut a bit round the outside of the field with a scythe - enough to make room for the binder to go round without flattening and wasting any corn.

[@wolframironside5858]

Sounds like good fun let me at it!

[@johnwakefield2083]

Not sure it was actually filmed in Sawston, Dufay were film manufactureres and were purchased by Spicers of Sawston in 1926. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dufaycolor Dufay colour film was one of the early attempts at colour film preceding Kodak & Eastman. So it may have been (wrongly) assumed that the film was shot in Sawston when it was only manufactured there.

[@brianperry]

Little did they know the world would soon be plunged into Armageddon. I can remember much of what I'm watching, even for the late forties/ fifties...Idilic days for country children in what seemed like endless summers..happy memories from childhood.

[@jpeel2066]

Can't believe that in a mere 20 years it was all so different. Great video. All the best 🇬🇧.

[@Electricfox]

In a mere two they would have to rapidly industrialize the farming sector to cope with the loss of many working men to the armed forces, coupled with the threat to imported food supplies from the Kriegsmarine.

[@diegestive4167]

When England was England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 😢

[@SarahJones-wy5us]

Die Gestive, HALLELUJAH !!

[@Juneaugold123]

yes, bloody empire builders, invading those countries and then expecting them to help us in the 2nd world war...and then to expect to live here, I mean, what a cheek!

[@diegestive4167]

Juneau Gold exactly!!! Glad you agree 😂😂😂

[@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo]

@@Juneaugold123 Everyone was empire building, the Ottoman being the cruellest, '2nd world war' you see the middle word 'world' everyone was fighting for their own survival, if they were helping 'us' who were us helping.

[@Juneaugold123]

@@hetrodoxlysonov-wh9oo missing the point completely you moron.

[@ichabodon]

I think someone in the BFI is fondly reminiscing about those wonderful days now sadly long gone when we were ‘Great Britain’. And look at us now

[@jimwest7107]

Think we are still Great. If you don't think so you can leave.

[@donlogan83]

If you offered that farmer the life we have today, he would take it in a heartbeat. Life was hard then, seriously hard. Try to look beyond a snapshot of a sunny summer’s day in idyllic countryside.

[@andrewmillyard3162]

Back when factory workers had no health and safety. Homosexuality was illegal and woman had little opportunity outside of being a house wife. It really was better back then.

[@maureenleigh4724]

I disagree@@jimwest7107 We are not still great at all. And why should he leave, it is his choice isn't it ?

[@patrickcolclough2423]

Easy to see it that way, but my uncles was a Doeset shepherd. As a nipper I went with him sometimes. He'd be out all day, rain, snow, frost whatever. We'd maybe walk 10 -12 miles checking his flocks. At Christmas he'd be staying in a hut on the lambing field. Nothing in it but sacks and feed but he'd sleep there. Nowadays they nip up on a quad bike and back in an hour.

[@davidcollingwood1262]

Absolutely brilliant.

[@Oakleaf700]

Chances are a lot of the older chaps in this film would have fought in WW1- it looks so romantic, and in a way it was-country villages are full of commuters now, and our fields are so mechanised, a 100 acre farm easily cared for by one person.

[@misiekvuychik3768]

Hard work. I remember 30 years ago we in Poland been doing exactly same work in my grandfather farm. Not so far ago! No combine machine. Now with combine harvest takes day or two.

[@t3br00k35]

God bless the people of Britain

[@jimdaniels7472]

The film starts by scything oats, which swiftly transform to wheat.

[@francesvansiclen3245]

when life had meaning and reason !

[@lil_sixxo]

Frances Van Siclen fr

[@michaelwalton9528]

cheer up you miserable twat

[@xXChamplooXx]

dang dude.

[@davids8449]

The replies here sound brain dead anyone who likes 2019 full of illegitimate children mass partners, mixed partners people fighting over a toy in a shop mass stabbings people going on endless holidays and then depressed on return home endless traffic jams building work carried out without any thought. The list goes on, and on TAKE ME BACK IN TIME PLEASE.

[@ikkelimburg3552]

David S It’s very simple. Just move to some backward thirth country, lease a piece of land and go struggle 24/7, 365 days a year for just enough food and money for the lease and your little shack. But that’s not ‘en vogue’ so people just keep on whining about the old days and do absolutely nothing to make adjustments to the present life/work/hobbies/volunteerwork.

[@terrytibbs1040]

that's the life, hard work fresh air and good food, theirs not much that a hard days work doesn't cure.

[@treforjoned6149]

classic fights stand up can’t you spell correctly

[@mrrolandlawrence]

Yip just work till you drop. No need to worry about retirement. The day you stop earning because of old age or a work accident is the end.

[@zanyzoo6767]

@@treforjoned6149 how enhanced you liiife must be by pionting out other peoples failings. Theres a few speeling mistakkkes in this comeents, knock yourslef out correcting them.

[@Knappa22]

@Roland Lawrence. Surely the idea on a family farm as depicted is that your children take over the farm and look after you in your old age.

[@ifmusicbethefoodofloveegc986]

@@Knappa22 Unfortunately it didn't often happen. Farming doesn't provide a good income & children realise they can earn far more for far less hours, so their parents are left to carry on virtually till they die. A farmer from my parents generation died, aged 83, without ever retiring. I imagine those who now complain about the raising of retirement age would be outraged.

[@granskare]

I can recall bailing hay and straw and that wonderful bits of straw getting beneath my shirt and more :) the good old days are better for thinking of than experiencing :)

[@Deliquescentinsight]

We have the very German 'Awakening of pleasant feelings on arriving in the country' to present the English harvest!

[@terryoneilp1421]

I really enjoyed this film.Notice how slim everyone was,i bet obese people were not as common as they are now.Hard work for sure but far healthy than today's lifestyle.

[@davidmead731]

Yes but the endless lifting lifting of very heavy sacks - grain, feed, fertiliser did for many knees and backs. Being out in all weathers, ploughing or whatever, cold and wet. I wouldnt rush back. The best bit was everyone working together and the laughing and joking that went on.

[@anoshya]

Little,obesity,anxiety or depression due to hard physical work..they must have slept so well..

[@lindseytaylor-guthartz1236]

No NHS, no money to pay for treatment for cancer, injuries suffered in the fields (no health and safety regs and a LOT of work accidents), sometimes not enough food, no chance for most of doing anything different even if they were bright, and very few possibilities for working class women. Yes, there were some positive aspects, but let's not pretend it was a fairy tale.

[@craigdavidson2278]

Look at all those hard working Africans and middle Eastern contributing to British history.....

[@reubencutts7361]

What have you done to contribute to British history then Craig?

[@mozdickson]

wow racism and anti-semitism in one thread...really!

[@craigdavidson2278]

@@reubencutts7361 I can trace my family back to 1745 (if you were lucky enough to know your father and veg British then you'd understand the significance of the date) my ancestors were at the Battle of talavera (napoleonic wars), Khartoum, 1st world war, grandads brother died thomas davidson died in 1938 Spanish civil war fighting fascism, grandad was on HMS cosack first Russian convoys and my dad served in Cyprus. Even new family members killed at King David hotel by terrorist's. Your move

[@InglebertHumptyDump]

@@mozdickson Racism and Anti-semitism don't exist. Just made up words for made up problems. If you don't like the way you're being treated either stop being a POS or go back to your own home.

[@reubencutts7361]

@@InglebertHumptyDump You cant just dismiss racism idiot. It is a very real problem and if you kept up with the news recently, you would see that. So please explain to me how racism isnt real.

[@nigelmitchell351]

When people understood real values.

[@zogworth]

Lots of people still do. Unfortunately many others seem to be forgetting the lessons learnt very shortly after this was filmed.

[@nigelmitchell351]

@@zogworth Quite agree !

[@mjribes]

Yup, they would be shocked and appalled by BFI's pro-sexual depravity logo

[@nigelmitchell351]

@@mjribes Sorry I don't get it, please explain ?

[@mjribes]

@@nigelmitchell351 They've changed their logo back to normal now. They have the sexual confusion flag in their logo for a while.

[@MorgoUK]

To think - there were ‘Stookers’ in the fields of England when this film was made yet two years later there were Stukas in the skies over Southern England.

[@denishoulan1491]

And thankfully. The stukas in the sky were being shot down.

[@HadzabadZa]

And now you have durka-durkas arriving all over it

[@doeharris5363]

This is when people weren't afraid of hard work. Fantastic film lots more if possible. 😊😊🐱🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@Kirkee7]

There's something satisfying about manual farm labour without the diesel engine. But , the world has changed MONEY.

[@jimmyskyblue6057]

My Grandma was bought up on a farm and she still lives on one today and she’s 96, she would love this video. I don’t think she’s got KZbin though lol

[@edwardvickers5506]

Wonderful film of a time gone forever.Times were hard compared to today but what a selfish society we now live in.We have everything but we have nothing and its getting worse!

[@fordtruxdad5155]

A bit of trivia, possibly of interest to some- The men are using two-tined pitchforks. We always called one with more than two tines a "pair of pitchforks". I, being old-fashioned, still do, and often confuse some of my younger workers when I tell them to get a pair of pitchforks. Sometimes they come back with two pair of pitchforks!

[@openfold]

I've waited years to see this again....this might just be Jennings' finest film....and he made many great ones. How our grandparents lived....backbreaking hard work, and ageing too, though.

[@780special]

Wonderful and evocative . Thank you. Charming but also back-breaking work and long hours for low pay for the average farm worker.

[@YllaStar95970]

But look where they lived, a large farmhouse, and surrounding land, an abundance of seasonal food, both arable, and non, children growing up without high levels of polution, and families seated together.... You can keep your minimum pay.....I'll take a maximum life, instead.

[@simonworman7898]

Aged 12 in 1963 I tied behind an old fellow opening a field for ground driven MH binder pulled by a1957 IH B250. The field was small by today's standards probably 3.5 acres and the crop was oats, I think the variety was Maldwyn which was the same Christian name as the fellow on the sythe,I I think I his younger days when a whole field would have been cut with a gang of sythe's cradles would have been fitted to each. Gathering and arm full to make a sheaf then pulling a handful wrapping it around ,twisting it,then tucking it under to form the tie. They were then stood up against the hedge to be out of the way of the tractor that probably would come the following day with binder. Thistles were the bain of yet unhardened hands, tying those opening sheaves!. That old chap's youngest daughter is now 91!. That was probably the last year a binder was used on the farm.The grain was not thrashed and rolled as all the working horses had gone some years before. It was fed in the sheaf whole to dairy cattle in winter. For a few years after the oat crop was cut with a fingerbar mower windrowed once then baled with a small conventional baler,there must have been more grain loss with that method,but the straw value is very high compared to other grain crops,it was still at that time fed whole to the most valuable cattle in winter. Sadly only the odd heritage oat harvest take place in Wales these days ,Green grain crops are cut small and made into silage in some parts,but at least young hands not yet truly work hardened get torn up by thistles!

[@northernenglander1916]

I would live in that era rather than today - I'd go back in a heartbeat

[@andrewdavies1312]

Little did he know a year later he'd more than likely be in a different country fighting nazis

[@albertuskundratis1]

Reminds me of an old Painting I did of a school chum: The PASTORAL DAVID ALEXANDER WEISS! (The same Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony inspired both as background)

[@JamieBoy-ij2ri]

"Today one can still hear the beautiful rhythm of its swing" unfortunately that "today" was nearly 80 years ago and farming has changed so much since.

[@mrrandom177]

That harvest ale looked like used engine oil ! fantastic film

[@MsVanorak]

It's home brew ale not poofy lager. I'm further west in cider country and most farms made some for their own consumption. My dad used to have a jar of cider in his packed lunch at primary school. :)

[@timcolledge3732]

Brilliant film!!

[@dbdb9334]

Glorious England.

[@gazof-the-north1980]

P.P.E in those days was a flat cap and a pipe!

[@SimonsRandomRants]

Nice old video but that music blasting all the way through all my God

[@inregionecaecorum]

Oo aar but I'll bet that scything guy was crippled with backache by the time he got to my age. I have ordered one of they fancy scythe blades from teh interwebs, but I'll never have the flat cap to match it.

[@johnhemming913]

I find it hard to comprehend that this was life only 20 years before I was born. How far we have come in such a short time & how much we stand to lose if we are not ultra careful with what we have left.

[@MsVanorak]

its all going to get tarmacked over by HS2 sooner or later.

[@marklorne6790]

Beautiful film. Like listening to both my grandfathers' stories of their youth.

[@Sennmut]

Interesting choice of music, with war with Germany looming. Beethoven.

[@SydBarrettsGhost]

watching this is better than any meditation

[@jamesford4750]

That harvest ale looks good stuff 🤪

[@Etheldreda-]

God, we’ve lost so much .

[@smhdpt12]

Ya, working to the bone 14 hours a day for .75 cents.

[@jamesdettmann94]

Oh come off it, this was 1938. Life in Britain was absolutely awful then

[@ramjet8778]

A beautiful period in what was once our green and pleasant land. Sadly gone now with the scourge of drugs, crime, violence, bad parenting, bad education etc etc....We never had it so good after the sacrifices our parents made during WW2 , yet it was all squandered by years of liberalism, family breakdown, lack of respect for law and order and the general selfish malaise that permeates so much of society these days.

[@samlancaster1277]

England has taken a wrong turning but all is not yet lost. So much is made of people living in poverty today. The poverty so prevalent everywhere in our land is that of Spiritual Poverty. No acceptance of a biblical moral code by which to live each day. To truly love our neighbours as we love ourselves, is to live an enhanced life to the full . It is not in the slightest diminished in any way. Current Liberalism denies Christ , denies true justice and breeds discontent in every aspect of society. The creed is Me , Me . I deserve etc. But no one in authority will stand up for the truth. Not even in the Church . All visible leadership there looks only for the next passing bandwagon on which to jump. Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter being only the latest in a long line of godless creeds that demand obedience from all on earth. We are currently living through a great shaking upon the earth. Get ready for the Great Showdown that will come. Fought out once again between the forces of good and evil. The Light versus the Darkness. Amen

[@robertmarsh3588]

Wonderful film from a now bygone age. I wonder if any of those featured in the film are still with us?

[@davidhorn6008]

1.18 This man has His scythe incorrectly set - He should not have to bend His back if it is correctly set. 8.27 How did men decide the area of an acre? - The area of land the could be ploughed by One man and one horse in one day, typically one chain by one furlong. - The word furlong is derived from "one furrow long".

[@Blackfive1945]

What a great time to live .The genie`s out the bottle now

[@fasx56]

working with loose hay was one of the many difficult jobs that were required on the farm before the hay balers were introduced. Usually done in the hotter summer weather and if one was prone to get hay fever from dust and pollen it was even much more miserable,

[@johnnydtractive]

As someone who grew up on a working dairy farm, I see things that are true & things that are false/scripted. True: holy crap, I can't believe he walked into that field with a scythe. Scything is literally back-breaking work. That team of horses is magnificent, & the gentleman is plowing a line that takes your breath away it's so straight & true. The plow moves thru that soil like a knife thru butter, which tells you the soil is loamy, rich and well cared-for. Also, the age range is true: for those who've never done the hard hard labour of working a farm, you start as a child & work until you're an old old man or woman. Also, girls and women often work a day of labour in the fields alongside the men & the ALSO prepared meals & kept the house on top of that. False: after a morning of work, no way those farmers would gather for their 'harvest ale' in the glaring sun at 3:48. Same with the tea break later. They'd stop near shade & rest in the shade with their beverage/meal. Also a lot of 'picturesque' details of clothing, fine china etc that is lovely but unlikely. Anyone romanticizing this footage is not paying attention to how hard the work is. Day after day in the brutal sun, machinery breaking down, rain ruining crops or drought killing them. Injuries & losses. Working from sunup until you drop like the sun at sundown. I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything, but it requires a level of stamina, endurance & grit even as a child that most adults couldn't sustain.

[@piggypiggypig1746]

I suppose they're wearing their Sunday best for the camera, the midday Ale and picnic in the glaring Sun too.

[@barkershill]

Back in the sixties my uncle had a chap called Gordon working on his farm and who like most farm workers in those days lived in a tied cottage . Which meant in case anyone doesn’t know, that the cottage went with the job . Loose your job and a week later you were out the house . Anyway every evening Gordon used to get on his motor bike ride to the village pub two miles away and drink four pints of Taunton cider . Then just before he left to ride home he would get two quart bottles out of his old army side pack and ask the landlady to fill them with cider from the barrel . I think she kept a little copper funnel specially for this task . I worked with Gordon a few times and he would down the first of those. Bottles at the ten o clock break and the second at one o clock when we stopped for lunch . He used to smoke really strong roll ups made from a tobacco called Black Beauty and the label on it featured a picture of a black woman . Yes , a lot of changes since those days ! And no poor old Gordon did not live to a ripe old age , he died of cancer aged about sixty

[@johnnydtractive]

@@barkershill Gordon was living a hard life that maybe took him too soon. I had a quick look at life expectancy charts for the 1960's--average life expectancy for men was 68 yrs of age. It's a full 10 years more today. It's good to hear stories of an earlier time of farming from someone who was there. Thankyou for sharing your memories. Did the farm stay in your Uncle's family?

[@barkershill]

johnnydtractive Funnily enough the farm is still in my family’s hands . All the land was rented from the Dutchy of Cornwall. My uncle had no son and when he died one of his nephews became tennant. When HE died it was decided the acreage was too small to be economically viable and the land was split between my two nephews who were already farming all the adjacent land

[@johnnydtractive]

@@barkershill Fantastic. It's lovely to see the skills, knowledge & love of the land passed down to another generation. Cheers!

[@jamezpipe]

English Harvest [1938]

[@jovossuck123]

your so right Madhobbit it annoys me when people say crap like "the world is getting worse/more violent etc" the world is better than its ever been..and it has a hell of a lot more freedom people love to confuse nostalgia with practicalities