At the turn of the century the work of the farm revolved around the farm horse. In 1975 the Anglia Bygones team, led by Dick Joice, filmed some remarkable men in their eighties and nineties who had worked with farm horses from before the First World War.
The regularity of the horseman’s day, the hierarchy in the stable, the high standards of workmanship, the secrets of ointments and horse lore-they talked about it all, and the Bygones team re-created their working lives. They showed ploughing, drilling, rolling, haymaking and harvest, as well as the farrier and the travelling stallion.
The 1914-18 war was the point at which this way of work began to change, with so many horses commandeered for army haulage and the first inroads made by the farm tractor.
Based on research by George Ewart Evans, this ‘Bygones Special’ is a memorable and accurate record of a past age.
Originally made and broadcast in 1975 as part of the Bygones series on Anglia Television, this video is devised and scripted by Geoffrey Weaver.