The Last Shepherds: 1
From the collection of
The Last Fishermen: 2
- Boulmer
- 2003-04-13
The Last Shepherds: 1
For shepherdess Gwen Wallace, spring brings the stresses of lambing time. Meanwhile sheepdog expert Dave Baxter buys a new pup to train.
The image of the shepherd striding the hills with his sheepdogs at his heels is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The number of shepherds working on Britain's hill farms has plummeted in the last 50 years and those who are left are more likely to use a quad bike than tend their flocks on foot, because they have up to three times as many sheep to look after as their ancestors did.With the decline in shepherd numbers goes the disappearance of many of their traditions. Carving a stick to catch a sheep was a winter-time pursuit for many shepherds, but most stick-dressers today have little to do with farming. And fewer shepherds are involved in making music than in days gone by. They just don't have as much spare time. In a series of four programmes, The Last Shepherds, we follow a trio of shepherds working in a part of the country where their skills are still needed - the vast, remote farms of the Upper Coquet Valley in Northumberland.
A captivating glimpse of a fading era, this series follows Dave, Stewart and wife Gwen as they tend their flocks on the rugged Cheviot Hills in Northumberland. Dave, who's keen on preserving the customs of the past, has worked on the same farm for 40 years. He carves his own walking sticks, makes his own sheepdog whistles from pieces of tin and enjoys nothing more than a night of music and memories at a shepherds' get-together on a winter's night. Inspirational and evocative, this fascinating look at shepherding traditions chronicles a way of life that is destined to become a distant memory.
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Charles Boden's 'The Last...' Series
A vanishing way of life in the North East of England captured on film in three television series featuring traditional ways farming, fishing, and shepherding.
The desire to capture a way of life before it was gone was the motivation of Charles Bowden, a Northumberland farmer's son, to produce the series known as The Last Farmer in 2000. Beginning his career as an agricultural journalist and becoming agricultural editor of the Newcastle Journal between 1975 and 1985, he moved to Tyne Tees Television to produce its weekly farming programme. It was during this time that Charles first met John Dodd and his family of Sillywrea Farm, near Allendale in Northumberland, who continued to use heavy horses to work the land, long after their neighbours had turned to the tractor. For a full year Charles filmed John, his son-on-law David Wise and their five huge Clydesdales running the farm to the rhythms of the seasons, allowing nature to lead the way.
The success of this series led to two follow ups: The Last Fisherman in 2003, about the vanishing way of life this time of two North-East coble fishermen, and The Last Shepherds in 2004, following several hill shepherds working the Northumberland Cheviot Hills. All three series are a unique record of an alternative way of life before it potentially slips into history.
11 videos in this collection
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The Last Fishermen: 2
2
The Last Shepherds: 1
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The Last Shepherds: 2
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The Last Shepherds: 3
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The Last Shepherds: 4
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The Last Horsemen: 1
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The Last Horsemen: 2
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The Last Horsemen: 3
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The Last Horsemen: 4
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The Last Horsemen: 5
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