National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Sheep Shearing - 2nd August 1961
The hills are alive with the sound of shearing. At the end of a hard day, the team of hand shearers gather to be filmed, before the dipping.
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Overview
Who’d be a sheep on shearing day? Jam-packed into a narrow space, thrown into a pool, a dog evil-eyeing you from the bank, clambering out, getting blown dry by a cold wind, being fleeced by a man with sharp shears (to be fair, this bit can be quite relaxing), released back, naked, into the cold, harried by dogs and dipped in a foul-smelling liquid. Then there’s the group photo – bet you can’t even make out which one I am, with all the shearers – and those dogs! – hogging the front rows.
Ion Trant of Dovea Farm, Tipperary, Ireland, studied agriculture in Canada and then took up a postion at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, Aberystwyth, where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool, both of them working on developing improved grasses for upland farms with George Stapledon. The Trants farmed at Maesmawr Hall, the adjoining farm Cefn Du, and a hill farm - Esgairdraenllwyn at Llaithddu, Llandrindod. Ion created/filmed the "Country Close-Up" series for children (BBC - 1956-62) and subsequently obtained work as a freelance cameraman. As John Kerry, he provided a column for the Montgomeryshire Express on the farming life.
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