West of England (1951)

[@marknelson5929]

Simply stunning, what else can one say. An England long gone.

[@theofarmmanager267]

The scenery is still there. A lot more houses in the last 80 years but there were even fewer houses 80 years before then; and 80 years before that. Should we go back to when there were no people? There are a few years to yearn for those times but many more reasons to thank that it has gone. Life was incredibly hard; we didn’t know it at the time as it was easier than 20 years before then but, compared to now, it was a tough, tough life. Nothing like fridges or washing machines, no inside lavatories; no bathrooms; no central heating - life for the working family was hard. No job security - none of this employment law that protects many. Food rationing was still around. Rebuilding our industries was a priority; the prospect of WW3 was a daily reality. Living in the towns was tough; living in the country was tough. For most. For those who had money or land, life had few worries. For the rest of us, it was about survival and looking for a bit extra to make life better.

[@marknelson5929]

You are quite right how times have changed. I completely understand where you are coming from, we often have a rose tinted view of the past these days. It was indeed hard irrespective of pre WW1or indeed between and post WW2 etc. We have to be thankful for a lot we take for granted these days. My apologies.

[@theofarmmanager267]

@@marknelson5929 no apology needed. I’m guilty of the opposite of rose-tinted. Of course, we had good times and they were always (had to be) low or no cost. Outings with family, adventures with mates; we thought they were good times. Now I look back and see, in comparison, how difficult they were for my parents. Equally, I’m sure their parents were telling them how harder were their lives. Perhaps the truth is that each generation has it slightly easier? I used to cycle perhaps 6 or 7 miles to collect cockles. And then ride back with a bucket full on each handlebar (needed both for balance). Clean them, cook them and bottle them. Brilliant tea - freshly pickles cockles and bread and butter. My grandmother used to buy a sheep’s head. Very cheap. For a reason. She would then boil it and we would eat the results. Tongue? Lovely. Cheeks? Lovely. Brains? Dreadful. So two teas with very different memories for me.

[@StellaAsh]

I can't watch this - It breaks my heart

Evil is on the horizon and i am no joking.

[@comesahorseman]

I know...the same sort of thing has happened and is happening to my native New England. 🤬 Still, if we remember how it was and how good it was, just maybe we can bring it back again! 🌱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇸

[@The_Geometrikam]

@ Agree.

[@The_Geometrikam]

@@comesahorseman Sir, we must all wake up before it is too late.

[@comesahorseman]

@@The_Geometrikam very true, sir! Be well!

[@englishman9020]

British culture and its beautiful countryside are truly beautiful

[@erichamilton5932]

*English culture back then yes, the English countryside is still as beautiful.

[@OutrageDuck69]

"He migh be my cousin....we're all related round here"......definitely British Culture.

[@judynewman3816]

This is where I live. And it’s still beautiful.

[@SydBarrettsGhost]

A pint of cider, a wedge of cheese , freshly baked bread and a view over the Cotswold hills.....what more could you want

[@comesahorseman]

Permanent residence! That, and a useful job! 😄

[@happyuk06]

@3:25 is that the Crown Inn, Minchinhampton?

[@annother3350]

Vegetables?!

[@comesahorseman]

@@annother3350 huh. A blooming onion, maybe.

[@happyuk06]

@@annother3350 Yeah maybe a pickled onion. Two if I'm feeling particularly healthy.

[@de-janeniles1120]

Give me the old ways - just beautiful, slow and gentle.

[@kyoglesage]

de-jane niles You mean the ‘old ways’ when we thought we could just keep pumping our industrial waste into those previously pristine waterways? Those old days when children died of, or were maimed by, childhood diseases? I was a 4 year old in 1951. I remember the choking smogs of those days. I wonder how many people who worked in those weaving mills died from the fibres that choked their lungs and how many families remembered their relatives who’d died in the mines. Every age has its benefits and its horrors. To not acknowledge that and imagine bygone days as something glorious and pristine is to fail to remember the harsh reality of many peoples’ lives which were often short, sharp and brutal.

[@Lifegrowsonandon]

@@kyoglesage well said

[@Lifegrowsonandon]

@Thao Brewster the second half of your comment contradicts the first half

[@michaelXXLF]

@Thao Brewster Oh bull! As if drugs are a new invention. Back in the days people got drunk every night. You don't like drugs? Don't take any! Be happy you're a white, old dude that can get whatever he wants just because you're a white, old dude! Let other people have the same rights, that does not take away any of those rights from you. Human rights are not pie, anyone can have a fair share. And brainwashing can easily be avoided but it is up to you to get active!

[@shamteal8614]

@@michaelXXLF Brainwashing! Are you being serious or just being ironic. I should think most people of an average intelligence reading your comment would correctly identify who's the brainwashed one among us. Old white guy of privilege, I'm just surprised you didn't throw in a beard and that white as well.

[@Wessexshire]

Judging by various comments, it strikes me that we generally feel a sense of loss. We all know why we feel it. England, Scotland and Wales, the United Kingdom has moved on, in some respects, for the better, and in other ways, not so much. I think most of us now would struggle to truly explain British culture if put on the spot to explain it, yet we know it deep down. We have for so long been brow beaten into believing that there was and is something wrong with us, that we have or are starting to forget our national culture and identity. The United Kingdom isn’t and wasn’t perfect, but it was and still is, ours. We should not be ashamed of our past and present. Films like this are great reminders of our past, all be it with rose tinted glasses, but never the less, an archive and record to throw back at modern narratives about our country and all that she was and is. Rule Britannia.

[@daejavue69]

It's not forgotten even if I do live in Lancashire famouse for its cotton Mills , I once worked in Strouds only working Woollen mill & still is a working cloth mill . Now its WSP , famouse for its finest pool table cloth , billiard table cloth & military cloths . I worked in the noisy weaving shed & was the last indentured Apprentice loom Tuner, known up North as a Tackler , we were the loom mechanics changing patern chains , repairing looms & putting in new work . As kids the Valleys & hills were our playground, happy memories living through the age of steam & waving at the steam engine drivers as the Brimscombe banker help pull traine up over hill .Happy Days 😊

[@jontalbot1]

I don’t feel a sense of loss at all. You have no idea how hard life was for most people. What you have is a dream. And if you had a functioning brain you would realise that in future people like you will look upon how we live now as some sort of paradise

[@keithnaylor1981]

Where did it all go - this green and pleasant land, this United Kingdom, rich in clean air, unpolluted freshness and natural foods? Makes you want to weep. KAN 7.20 UK

[@edwalker598]

its still here

[@blackphillipppp]

@@edwalker598 it is, but not in the abundance it once was

[@nicholasbell9017]

Oh come on, everything driving a desperately overdrawn Britain, post-war was powered by coal and gas! This is pure romanticism.

[@LuciThomasHardylover-qx6ts]

It's all been built on because everyone wants a separate house! Not that many years ago, single people, even professionals, would live in bedsitters or small flats. Now everyone wants a house. Every time a couple gets a divorce the need for housing one family now needs two. It's not immigration,talk to estate agents. The best agricultural land is the bit they always build on, even water meadows are drained for housing. People then want new roads because the old ones can't cope with the traffic,2-3 cars to a house isn't unusual now. Once you have new roads shops and garages pop up along them and more land is swallowed up. If you don't like it,use your high street,use the bus. Take in lodgers and stop using put of town developments 🤷 they only exist to make money,if we don't give them ours there's no incentive to build more!

[@adrianatkins3128]

It’s still like that in my small farming community in Devon

[@stewartmcmanus3991]

I was 5 when this was made. It looks so similar to my native Yorkshire. I was already starting to explore the woods and fields with some boys from our estate and as we grew we explored further afield on our bikes. Across the Yorkshire moors, camping, living on local stuff, potatoes on a campfire, fruit from hedgerows, bread and cheese from home, water from a stream. I did my Duke of Edinburgh award there in 1960 with the Air Cadets. I wonder what kids do nowadays?

[@Alistplay]

I'm 20 and still ramble on my days off amongst the rivers Itchen and the last patches of forest that surround old Winchester. But iam deeply saddened that I missed out on the days in which you grew up, a seemingly more same Britain and world one where hard work was still done and nature was still somewhat untouched by plastic pollutants and sewage flows. But I keep making sure to travel and cherish as much of the natural beauty this god chosen Isla can offer before it fades.

[@rebirth3X]

What have we done, can we get this back again? 🙏

[@joblogs8886]

Give me back my glorious country back.

[@treborob]

Can you get the Middle Ages back? stupid question, the past is the past.

[@TP-mv6en]

robert mcknight He didn’t literally mean can we go back in time

[@dulls8475]

NO. This is because you need those people back.

[@stevegordon5689]

A pandemic where only 00.01% of people survive. Sadly most people would rather live in filth than give me their electronic gizmos!

[@aiferapple1246]

They used to show films like this before the main feature in the cinema. It really takes me back

[@emmalouisejay387]

Laurie Lee's words are moving and splendid. He writes with love for his land.

[@louisoleary7853]

How much we have lost 😔🇫🇷

[@michaelXXLF]

We gave up on it - willingly.

[@jontalbot1]

Yeah backbreaking labour, poverty, cold damp houses. You do not know you are born

[@wadesaleeby2172]

I would like to step back in time to a place like this!🤗

[@jontalbot1]

Funny that. I have little doubt people then would gladly swap their lives for ours

[@patrickhaughton4125]

I grew up there such wonderful memories we stopped and talked to Laurie Lee once when Out walking with my Dad my house in Minchinhampton opposite the church is there at 326 with the Lloyds bank sign over it

[@kaugusta1]

Just beautiful. Breathtaking landscapes and views. Makes me want to walk there every day, wearing something woven from that wonderful cloth!

[@jontalbot1]

You can buy it now only hardly anyone wants it. It’s expensive and there are so many better alternatives which didn’t exist when this was made

[@comesahorseman]

Oh, my word! My ancestors came from Aberdeen and Cornwall, way back when. But this area could just as easily be home country. This strikes a chord! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@johnlowdon5809]

Love it ,love England forever ! Best people on the planet bar none.

[@russellking9762]

that's right luv....Myra Hindley...Kray Twin's....Fred West....Peter Moore....lovely people....the fact that none of them were Knighted or given the OBE is a disgrace...!

[@ExLibris-Alys]

russell king There are evil people in every country in the world, big or small, so of course England has had its share.

[@ExLibris-Alys]

John Google Yes, me too.

[@johnlowdon5809]

@Pat Alessi Luxury ! We used to dream about living in a cardboard box, not that we had much sleep mind.

[@ExLibris-Alys]

laughinggravy2 Not sure where you live, but I’ve never heard any of those accusations!

[@blackphillipppp]

This is my england🌾

[@mountainmantararua8824]

Brave men went off to the great war and indeed the 2nd war with the memories of these villages, limpid pools and lazy streams, imprinted on there minds and full of hope that they would return. For some there was no passage back home just the cold clay of a foreign land. What a shock they would receive now if they were to return. Gone the peace and quiet, gone the coinage that they once new and of course the old way of life. What knew they of computers ,Wi-fi, broadband. Yet still life went on with less stress then today. For I am at an age now where I can look back and reflect on those days when this film was made and mourn the passing. I am sure the next generation will think the same when they are long in years.

[@joesmoke9624]

The country I loved is no more

[@js2749]

Well my goodness me - this is where I live, and it's still bloody gorgeous

[@lighthousecollector]

Wonderful. Today more than ever the past seems a better place .

[@lstyle2018]

Beautiful landscape and fabrics.

[@NickBloomfield]

Beautifully shot little film.

[@PNut-cu5oi]

Such a nostalgic film for days long gone.The Stroud Valleys are still beautiful,but the way of life has changed completely,sadly.

[@jontalbot1]

Yeah don’t suppose anyone gets rickets these days

[@michaelgibson4705]

Whoever said “The past is a different country” might have been talking of the UK in 2020

[@Richard.Allsop]

L.P. Hartley - 'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.' You beat me to it!

[@dnr2089]

I was born in England in 1958. Don’t let my nickname fool you - I’m white anglo Saxon! Things have changed so much in my 62 years, some for the better, but a lot more for the worse.

[@MrAlistar99]

@@dnr2089 your name is wild👍🏻👍🏻

[@briansearle4138]

Britain was leading the way in the fifties, inventions ( aircraft etc ) . Life was so simple then but hard.

[@NoName-jq7tj]

Life was hard that's why it was simple. In hard times you appreciate the simple things in life. So may this current crop of folks who are living in quarantining may actual appreciate the everyday things. You can see the essence of a modern world when the narrator talks about how wool is exported. Now so much is exported.

[@comesahorseman]

I would submit that it was good *because* it was hard; we valued what we had.

[@MsMesem]

My parents took off to the antipodes just at the time that British economy/life was improving.

[@charlieneilson1239]

Wonderful film!

[@mathewgreen4099]

Lovely film, thanks for posting.

[@nicholasgerrish6022]

There is still so much unspoiled land in our beautiful country, and I feel fortunate to be able to see it. These delightful films shadow a different pace to life, which has all but gone, but may still be found in many a quiet, rural location, if one looks a little hard. During the “lockdown”, one of the benefits that came to us, especially to those in the countryside, was an almost mysterious winding back to a period such as the 1950s, when there was time to enjoy a peaceful day outside, with no modern day noise. How quickly, and jarring lay

[@moorcl]

How very true, during the lockdown we had pheasants and hares walking up and down the main street, you could hear all the birds no cars no planes it was bliss, just goes to show we're not that far from it still once modernity has been held at bay, maybe more people working from home would lead to the reduction in traffic that would in some way help to relive those more peaceful times out in the sticks.

[@matthewsell6264]

I work in the Stroud valleys as a gardener often in streams and fields. There is more woodland here now than there has been for hundreds if not a thousand years. The rivers ( where otters now swim) are the cleanest they've been since the industrial Revolution, now that the factories have gone to other parts of the world. Fields are going fallow as there's no money to be made from them on the steep hill sides. Buzzards soar over the town centre and kites, peregrines and goshawks can be seen in the area. Deer and now as common as grey squirrels. I buy double Gloucester cheese from the old Gloucester breed of cows at a very reasonable price from the farmers market every Saturday, along with traditional apple cider vinegar, cheap game meat for the forest of Dean and vegetables from farmers with dirt under their finger nails. I wear a moth eaten Stroud cloth waistcoat to work and the other day I got my moth bramble torn eaten tweed jacket mended by an elderly customer. The priest at the Catholic church has a thick West country accent, as does his tractor driving ponytailed assistant. True, there been a lot of destruction of wildlife and the old country ways. Pesticides and fertilizers have killed a lot of wildlife. The working class people have for the large part moved out of the villages. In the grammar schools at one time (in living memory) every single boy and girl spoke with the local accent distinguishable by each village, now they all speak with received pronunciation, a quarter of them are of Asian descent(not a bad thing), coming in every day from Swindon and Gloucester. We've gone from 100 cloth mills here now down to one. Immigration and world travel have brought amazing food and culture here and there is a revival of deep spiritual practices (by hippies and Asians) that had been stamped out in the reformation. I would put a small wager that there is a citizen from every nation in the world living in the Stroud valleys. There's been a lot of changes since this film was made but there is hope for the future, not only in Stroud but for the whole planet earth.

[@MareShoop]

Matthew Sell, thank you for your uplifting reply 💕

[@moorcl]

@Steve Slade guess the American Indians are thinking the very same about you!

[@simontuffs4106]

Your tales of modern day Stroud are all very well and good Mr Mathew Sell...... But can you smoke yer pipe when you're out riding your horse.

[@annother3350]

Just as most countries we need controlled immigration, especially with the automation of jobs meaning we don't need workforce replacement bit the elite want to see all patriotism destroyed

[@moorcl]

@Steve Slade With attitudes such as yours your doing a fantastic job of destroying the usa with out any outside help at all...............very sad

[@TheA8lee]

I grew up in Kingswood, Wotton-Under-Edge. There's a reason why the country's well-to-do folk all have homes around those parts... :)

[@jontalbot1]

And priced out the ordinary folk in this film

[@johnmccann1960]

England, my England. How I Mourn your passing. My heart aches for your glory and lost simpler ways.

[@jontalbot1]

People in future will look upon our age as the good old days with the same simple minded nostalgia.

[@FromePublishing]

might as well be 200 years ago and yet it was like this when i was kid

[@freednb]

A beautiful celebration of Stroud's history by it's most famous inhabitant.

[@Clyde.artwork]

We've always known and understood the beauty and majesty of what we had. Its sad that in a handful of decades (overnight) we've willfully, gleefully thrown it all away....

[@tiernanwearen8096]

It's a brief snapshot into a vanished world so little like our one yet so near

[@MartinJones-o2x]

Makes me sad, comparing that world to the one we live in now😢

[@davidlee6720]

Cider with Rosie: read it at school: never forgot.

[@ZJStrudwick]

I'm surprised nobody has actually pointed out "we're all related here!"

[@mickeymunkchunk4512]

When Britain was British 🇬🇧❤

[@antonk.2748]

And half of Africa

[@mickeymunkchunk4512]

@@antonk.2748 British people stayed and fought for our country.

[@juliamarple3058]

100%. It breaks my heart seeing what has happened to our once beautiful proud nation. Our politicians are to blame for our lose, and we are to blame for allowing them to get away with it.

[@antonk.2748]

@@juliamarple3058 What happened to the nation then? Because last time I checked the average Brit earns more, has a higher standard of living, lives longer and travels more than in the 1950s or at any time in history for that matter. Can someone please stop this irrational nostalgia for "the good old times" that weren't actually all that great when you look realistically at peoples lives not at some ideal world of tranquility depicted in a movie.

[@None-zc5vg]

@@juliamarple3058 There's no way of doing anything about it: how could you overturn and replace our utterly corrupt political system that's controlled by supranational interests ?

[@davidroberts1187]

I thought it was just me , but many comments on these old films reflect a great sense of loss for our homeland, I realise these films are idealistic but we have lost a great deal in my opinion. I want Britain back.

[@tubecated_development]

Consumerism became everything. Fly tipping and US-style takeaway containers littering everything. And factory-fed chickenshit and factory-fed human shit in the rivers and brooks. “Little traffic disturbs the peaceful Green, and long may it remain so” 😂😂😂😂😂😂 England IS cars. The car-lovers paradise. 3 outside every house, throw the litter from the car-windows. Drive half a mile to the chip shop. Cars, like consumerism, became everything to the Modern Brit. Car-culture helped us consume olde England. The presence of them seen and smelled and heard everywhere. They take all of our money and all of our time. And we love them more than anything. ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ And by the 1960s it was all over, so they are just now filling in the gaps. Subtopia. A vast junk heap.

[@simoncollins6529]

Ah merry old England...... Tiz all just Mosques, takeaways, Asda's, and retail parks now......

[@markofsaltburn]

... and misplaced apostrophes from nationalists who are anxious to conserve everything but their own language.

[@montecarlo1651]

Funny thing, this film was an image of England which was an evil nightmare to only a generation before. That generatoon saw machines like this as the advance guard of capitalism and the destruction of rural life, no wonder they went to breaking them, Captain Swing and Luddites both. Britain's enslavement to steam and coal and more more more for fewer and fewer. Like the enclosing of the commons before that. The underlying problem remains unchanged right up to today: the concentration of wealth at the expense of the many, into the hands of the few.

[@annother3350]

@@markofsaltburn Apostrophe Nazi

[@jontalbot1]

Complete with merry old bigots like you

[@thejetbloke4509]

I didn´t realise I was homesick until I watched this, - "my" Slad valley and Painswick.

[@tonyalways7174]

Dont we all wish we’d lived in such times in such a place? Sadly it never really existed not in the West Country nor anywhere else. But we can dream can’t we and feel warm and charmed that such a place could have been here in our green and pleasant land. Beautiful film and I wish we lived like it then and now.

[@robwilde855]

I don't know what's the matter with you. You're expressing a very false wisdom. I was born and brought up and worked in such a place [without the cloth industry], from 1949 to 1969, in Derbyshire; and after that in other similarly peaceful rural places in England and Scotland, with sensible and sensitive traditional ideas predominating in the local people. Nothing in this film contradicts my experience, and none of my experience contradicts anything in the film. This sort of reality did 'really exist' in many places. Of course there were many other places where things were much less harmonious. But that's no reason to paint all places with the same brush, coloured with your own necessarily-limited studies, just because you just happened not to be fortunate enough to have experienced good wholesome traditional English country life. I don't mean to be rude. And I did like your well-put appreciation of the ethos itself. Thank you.

[@js2749]

@@robwilde855 You're right, Rob. I live here in the Stroud Valleys close to Stroud and it's still beautiful. Greatest place on Earth (but I am a bit biased)

[@loupgaroux9587]

If it didn't exist, how did they film it? You are claiming this film is not real?

[@stellayates4227]

Look up the history of the wool mills in the West Country to see the heritage that brought wealth to the area. The red cloth produced in this film was used for the officer's jackets of the British Army. There is the Stroud Valley Textile Trust for s start and the whole valley along the Frome River and Canal was a corridor of woollen mills which stand to this day. www.google.co.uk/search?sa=N&sxsrf=ALeKk01fRW2XSTtUyfrj5jvBr5tMGSL34Q:1595383227824&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=wool+factory+in+Stroud&ved=2ahUKEwigvMzU4d_qAhW_RBUIHZYuCI84ChCwBHoECAoQAQ&biw=1242&bih=597

[@stellayates4227]

Stroud still produces the fabric that covers all the tennis balls used for Wimbledon so this is not fiction - visit www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3668334/New-balls-Inside-factory-distinctive-fluffy-yellow-fabric-cover-Wimbledon-tennis-balls-100-years.html

[@terrywilliams4032]

Some of it looks like a John Ford film. I’m not sure it really existed. It’s easy to get lulled by the violins😉

[@simonclarke1383]

No plastic in that river 😳

[@jackcade356]

PATRIOTIC ALTERNATIVE

[@englishman9020]

Patriotic Alternative all the way✊🏻

[@jontalbot1]

Racist peabrain more like

[@Bibibosh]

This video is majestic!

[@loupgaroux9587]

Whatever else happens, we the Britons must protect what we can of these areas now for our children, and the hope that the hell we have made out of England can one day be undone. We need to depopulate now.

[@dulls8475]

If you could step of this mortal coil now to show an example that would be great.

[@amayastrata4629]

Well getting rid of the less intelligent, racist and ignorant people would be a good start. I live in the south west and it’s just fine and dandy. Perhaps you would return to candles for lighting and outside cludgies with cut up daily mail newspaper squares as toilet paper. I’m sure you have plenty of those to use.

[@amayastrata4629]

katie perry the ones whose nations we raped, pillaged and enslaved for our countries own gain you mean. Well done.

[@dulls8475]

@@amayastrata4629 Sorry when did the British do that? Not in my life time. Have a go at Italy and the f....king Romans for a change. I dont blame the Germans of today for WW2 either.

[@amayastrata4629]

dulls ah yes, not me gov syndrome. How typical.

[@teutonictosh]

There is a politician watching this somewhere thinking how sad it is that there are no Indians in this perfect little village.

[@michaelking8642]

It’s the loss of our Gypsies I most regret. We’ve all been robbed by our so called authorities. Bunch of scumbags, every one of them.

[@michaelking8642]

Farmers ! They’re nothing more than the Gorger scum who stole the land and starved us all. Bastards every one.

[@jontalbot1]

And there are millions if the rest of us sick of bigots like you

[@plutonium6280]

Mum always said England was so lovely after the War. Im in Australia and dream of a simple non money life like this daily.....but the powers in charge wouldnt want that.

[@annother3350]

Yeh non money but they still had government war rations for 4 more years. Life was tough.

[@plutonium6280]

@@annother3350 Lifes tough now ,working for the money system, constant debt, bills, no one happy ,blm, terrorists, etc etc. back then we where English and proud and free.

[@teddydixon6875]

That war ruined Europe. Any one who advocates for our people is now a fascist. But at least we are not speaking German i suppose.

[@plutonium6280]

@@teddydixon6875 so true, the way things have turned out makes one wonder why we even fought against the Germans....

[@JH-ht2me]

what a thought evoking film, we all I think, deep down yearn for the return of that life

[@kathyirwin]

And the grinding work and poverty, cold houses, outside toilets, no washing machines, I could go on...

[@patrickmurphy9266]

The golden age .

[@3DSgeek]

This was the end of the golden age. Soon after this was made mass immigration happened.

[@grosvenorclub]

The era of my childhood around Bath , Somerset .

[@andyrbush]

I was born in 1951. Now I live in rural Thailand where some of the farms and farmers make the 1950's UK look positively an advanced technology society. It is glorious here.

[@embr4065]

What are those women doing around 7:45? Picking the cloth with something?

[@kathyirwin]

That must have been fun 10 hours a day

[@cynthiapate9138]

What a lovely time!!

[@mikesaunders4775]

The villages are now dormitory suburbs, the countryman long vanished.

[@matthewtrow5698]

Yep. The march of 'progress' - little pockets can still be found, but they'll be from quite old people. We had a bit of dry stone wall fixed by an old fella recently. They're the only ones that do it. No young people are interested in this anymore - and even the older guys are more into the nostalgia than anything else. Most of them are not even the last of the line, they are the kids of the last of the line - the line having vanished with their fathers. What remains is just a tiny flame of what we have lost.

[@annother3350]

If there was enough demand to fix dry stone walls im sure people would meet that demand. There are plenty of micro brewers and artesanal food companies. The demand has to exist

[@matthewtrow5698]

@@annother3350 There's not enough people who want to do the work, but there's plenty of work to be had. I've chatted with 3 different masons who fix stone walls and they all say the same thing - it's the old fella's keeping this going and most of them have tried to retire, but there's so much work, they just can't turn it all down. Nobody else wants to do it. Maybe that will change, but it could also mean the end of these amazing walls over time.

[@annother3350]

@@matthewtrow5698 Sometimes things have got to move on though. People said British people no longer want to work harvesting fields but when the opportunity came 10,000 people applied in a day and crashed the website. So people are willing to work in the countryside but maybe we have to move on from dry stone walls like the egyptians moved on from Pyramids. ;o)

[@matthewtrow5698]

@@annother3350 Dry stone walls are exceptionally useful and very environmentally friendly. They are a haven for wildlife of all kinds. They also look a lot better than wire fences. There's nothing to move on from here, they are a solid and sound way to wall off areas of land and look beautiful. We can only hope that in a country that is now expecting to have a high level of unemployment, young people may take up the craft - you can make good money from it. As for Brits working in the countryside, that really would be fantastic - but the pay would need to be higher than it is now. We would then be expected to pay more for the soft fruit/vegetables that are still harvested by hand. For some people, that would be welcome if it meant more employment, for others, it would be an extreme hardship to see food prices increase. Migrant labour gave us cheap vegetables and fruit, there's no way around this simple fact. Many of those who applied were put off by the fact they were expected to live on the site where they worked, in provided accommodation that they felt was unfit for them. It also didn't fit in with their lifestyles. If you already have a house, a place to live - why would you want to live in a caravan or portahome with many other people? The people who applied wanted to commute to the farms. Most farms don't work that way, they can't, the hours are long and they aren't setup to accept commuting farm workers. It is backbreaking labour - I know this myself, having spent a year working on farms picking fruit and vegetables. I also lived on a farm for seven years. The owner of the land had tried many times to hire local people to help around the farm. None of them lasted more than a few months. They couldn't cope with the hard graft. The polish farm hands could. So he hired them. I recall that he kept sheep for a season - to grass feed them - and had to get them sheared. There was nobody to do it, but groups of Australians and Kiwis, who came over in the summer months to work farms up and down the country, to shear sheep. Many farmers don't even keep their own combine harvesters these days - it's outsourced. The cost is too exorbitant, but the outsourced guys can work multiple farms, so it works out fine for them.

[@johnobrien8398]

Good old England the way it should be

[@jontalbot1]

Yeah like living in hovels, worn out from work by 50

[@seanrathmakedisciples1508]

This the year that I was born and I worked on the land going to the creamery with a donkey and cart.

[@seanrathmakedisciples1508]

Martin Beberman yes we have great cider in Ireland. Bulmers ciders Are world famous. Especially in summer.

[@jeffatkins6890]

I remember grampa / granny taking me ELY market ( South Wales ) in a gambo with 2/3 Bobby calves in the back

[@sivanandadas4761]

Thankyou sir. Thanks god.

[@Take_Me_Back_To_The_1980s]

The country we had. The country we could have had still

[@CDeBeaulieu]

Ahh, to be in England now that Spring is here.... Robert Browning?!

[@lesleyscott938]

Nothing has really changed that much, just more advanced technology ❤

[@jontalbot1]

It’s completely changed economically and socially. There are no longer a lot of agricultural labourers and the people living in the country are overwhelmingly well to do, often retired

[@lesleyscott938]

@jontalbot1 by 1951 that was already the case...

[@jontalbot1]

@@lesleyscott938 It didn’t really begin until the 1960s

[@robnewman6101]

Keep Calm and Carry on.

[@Colaris99]

When the ingredients of the modern world run dry we will have no choice but to go back to a world like this.

[@corrocot1]

Not a burka in sight.

[@DC-wt2vi]

Women wore hats and headscarves back then. Men covered their heads with appropriate hattage, too. Gloucestershire was once famous for hat making.

[@jontalbot1]

Nor a peabrain obsessed by people of colour

[@polecat119]

The country we once lived in , long before we are were forced to swallow “ YOU MUST EMBRACE DIVERSITY “ in other words you are not allowed to have ones own opinion about anything anymore ! . Look around you look whats happened ......what a dreadful place our country is now compared to what’s shown in this film. Very sad

[@MrJayHeath]

"Diversity" as in the dance group or "Diversity" as in "Bloody foreigners!" ?

[@jontalbot1]

I have an opinion. People like you who do like modern Britain should eff off out of it.

[@patkramer5372]

This film needs AND deserves digital enhancement and restoration

[@bobroberts6155]

We still get horses clattering past in the village but the riders now wear oversized hats and neon orange vests.

[@tiernanwearen8096]

It feels like a vanished world so little like our one yet so near

[@michaelx9079]

Excellent films...... but why the rainbow in the avatar?

[@snowflakemelter1172]

The BFI is full on SJW

[@3DSgeek]

Because every British institution has been taken over by the radical left.

[@inotaarto8719]

Ironically the rainbow was and is the symbol of Gods promise not to drown the land in water... He mentions fire later...

[@teddydixon6875]

Fucking hell, what a nightmare they have created for our children.

[@raymorgan4337]

Magical.

[@michaell1751]

Happy days.

[@Kyleinasailing]

If you ordered a Rolls Royce Phantom in the 60's, the rear compartment was either in leather or West of England cloth. It was quite simply the finest and best available anywhere in the world.

[@DevonDandy]

West of England and Westcountry are terms that lead to confusion. Very few who live in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Dorset identify with countries which are half in the Midlands like Gloucestershire.

[@TheA8lee]

For the record, I thought 'The West Country' was defined as Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire and (I think) Wiltshire.

[@marcholbeck3286]

Gloucestershire is in the west of England,nothing to dispute about that. I really don't see why southern counties like Devon,Somerset etc would feel a need to identify with Gloucs. I also cannot accept that Gloucs or any part of it is in the Midlands. Oh yeah,and Gloucs isn't a country.

[@mozdickson]

Before plastics, before the EEC, before disposable (sweat-shop) fashion, before the illusion of Globalisation and 'market efficiency', before borders as porous as a chalk stream, before transgender madness, and men marrying men...should I go on. Sure, it weren't perfect --- but there is wisdom still in the old ways, and in the holy scriptures, and in decency.

[@ThePhuckedupworld]

"before transgender madness, and men marrying men" hate to break it to ya, but that's been around longer than England as a polity has

[@bens1972]

No, please don’t go on. It’s a shame we didn’t lose bigots like you to history too.

[@MarKeMu125]

They used globalisation to outsource the wool supply to NZ... It was only a matter of time before the factories were as well. This is what happens when you don't have a protectionist government. From what I heard the machines here would've replaced so many weavers huts which turned safe work into kids having to scamper under running machines to catch threads where they could lose body parts. They also used to weight clocks so people worked longer, time is money.

[@marcusporciuscato6404]

@@bens1972 "Bigots" built the greatest civilizations in history. Don't you dare forget that, cur.

[@jontalbot1]

If you don’t like it eff off out of it.

[@markoVTX]

The old streams now infested with Signal crayfish and the trees with Grey squirrels. Lovely little film, though.

[@joblogs8886]

Give me back my glorious country.

[@tiernanwearen8096]

A vanished world so little like our one yet so near

[@MonkFishTV]

Painful to see what has been stolen from us.

[@jontalbot1]

Who is ‘they’? Martians?

[@peterrhodes7623]

Spent my youth in the UK. Warminster, Wilts. Like those kids, I used to go down the river and catch tiddlers. Simple life. But as I aged, I had to face all the rules, regulations and restrictions. A few people owning huge areas of the country. Keep out. Did I really want to spend my life working for a country like that, and have a mortgage for the rest of my life? Got on the plane and alighted in New Zealand in 1979. It was like breathing in a lung full of pure oxygen. Owned a 3 bedroom bungalow and became semi-retired at age 27. Fully retired at 35. Never had a mortgage or HP in my life. Had the outdoor life that would have been impossible in the UK and made a ton of money by doing it. Every day was an adventure. Unfortunately NZ is becoming like the place that I escaped from. You will see pictures of this place, and like the video, it seams like heaven on earth. It's actually going down the same sewage pipe, with an accelerated flow over the past 3 years thanks to our communist PM and her comrades. Men are being replaced by snowflakes and soy boys. Sad how so many can be manipulated/corrupted by so few.

[@simoncollins6529]

Oh that Jacinda Ahern or whatever her name is..... She's a right fekin witch. A witch in a hijab

[@annother3350]

Unfortunately new Zealand has fallen...

[@peterrhodes7623]

@Matt THX Apparently now works around the holy buildings with the hemispherical roofs, dressed in his/her Ukrainian peasant outfit, targeting the camel riders that frequent those places. Having a face like a camel is a real plus. Known there as Anna Rexic. (Have to reply the way I have or the Googlestapo will pick up on some of the words and delete it. He/she is part of that restriction too!)

[@peterrhodes7623]

@John M Who is Abernathy? Never heard of him/her.

[@andrewcripps2314]

Westbury Wiltshire me , now in France 😀👍🇫🇷

[@Firebrand55]

..when the most complicated thing around was a sundial...

[@robinbennett3531]

looms!

[@leblob_fish]

My grandma was born in 1951, i was born 2013

[@Bob-Horse]

Good old white indigenous England...what a loss, and some call it progress, I fail to see it myself.

[@annother3350]

Go three miles outside a town or city it's still just as white

[@TheOneAndOnlyZeno]

@@annother3350 Not even close.

[@annother3350]

@@TheOneAndOnlyZeno It sure fucking is

[@TheOneAndOnlyZeno]

@@annother3350 Praise god if you still live in a entirely white populated part of England -if not, stay in denial.

[@annother3350]

@@TheOneAndOnlyZeno Denial -- I travel -- it's fact. The UK is still 80% white and when you go a few miles out of town you hardly see any other races. Not really sure why you have a problem with that. I'm all for controlled immigration etc.

[@stevegordon5689]

This is how some people envision heaven.

[@jontalbot1]

Mostly people like you who have no idea what life was like for most people

[@My2up2downCastle]

....and then along came "convenience"........

[@inotaarto8719]

I'm all for returning idylic countryside societies and ecologies. Although it requires grazing, them millions of sheep and the ppl to heard them and take care of the lands...

[@clivebaxter6354]

West of the caliphate soon!

[@jontalbot1]

Why not eff off if you don’t like it? You won’t be missed

[@clivebaxter6354]

@@jontalbot1 I did 18 years ago, the weather is 31 degrees in Bangkok!

[@jontalbot1]

@@clivebaxter6354 Good luck with it. Rather be here any day of the week

[@heidimolan179]

The country remains, but the mills, the cloth and the wearing of such beauty all gone.

[@simoncollins6529]

You could be stood on the most beautiful hillside in England and you'd always hear the sound of a distant motorway. Tiz all noise and light pollution now

[@MsVanorak]

wasn't the first panic stricken lock down lovely. the sound of moths wings at night, the dawn chorus without the background growl of engines. the silence at in the garden at night. i wish they had switched the street lighting off too so that we could be without light pollution. my sense of smell became keener. i have noticed so many more moths and butterflies this summer as the council are still not tending the town verges.

[@robinbennett3531]

come to exmoor national park

[@Richard.Allsop]

A paean to a lost world. Far too many babies went out with the bath water!

[@pc2753]

London broke this socioecological masterpiece and replaced it with socioeconomic disaster. Progress without caution, prudence or deep understanding of the past leads to ruin. Yet still we don't learn; each generation casually throwing away the hard won wisdom of the previous.

[@None-zc5vg]

"...politics without principle..." (Gandhi)

[@jontalbot1]

Special Jury prize for outstandingly dimwitted comment

[@bens1972]

It’s actually still there. I live in a village not a city. There is a pub, there farmers still work in the same way....Technology has changed and so has fashion. Most comments on here probably come from city dwellers. These films romanticise farming, which it was anything but. Time moves on... only the British love to live in the past. Nostalgia and rose-tinted glasses. I’m sure the old folk in the pub in that film complained about modern times in 1951. How they miss the ‘Great War’ and how World War 2 wasn’t as good as the first one. “I don’t want none of your electricity in my house... you can keep that modern stuff....I’ll keep the stove going, like I always have, thank you very much “

[@Vingul]

They weren't wrong to complain about modern times in 1951, in the same way that we are not. And I doubt they were complaining about electric heat/lighting.

[@marcusporciuscato6404]

REMEMBER WHAT THEY TOOK FROM YOU!

[@lillydog12]

It's time to revolt. Ride the Tiger.

[@sandralittlejohn3816]

You have to fight. only fools would give up there weapons. A old man once asked do you have to kill to have peace. He waited and no one would answer. Finally he said yes ,some times you do. When you let people in that are not of your Owen beliefs they will destroy your way of life.

[@Take_Me_Back_To_The_1980s]

What in god's name are you blathering about?

[@grandsonofsamnifdy4266]

The push for diversity destroyed this.

[@MrAlistar99]

I don't think so.

[@zogworth]

As explained in the video, cheap imports killed it. Joys of capitalism.

[@charlesloukas7862]

@@MrAlistar99 the Stroud valleys still look like this

[@inotaarto8719]

And the laziness of a generation to do physical labour, that's what made the crack that immigration is flowing to fill.

[@zogworth]

@@inotaarto8719 'laziness' or the fact that it doesn't pay anything like enough to actually live. Source: have spent more summers than I care to mentioned throwing hay bales around for next to no money.