The Last Horsemen: 1
From the collection of
The Last Fishermen: 2
- Boulmer
- 2003-04-13
The Last Horsemen: 1
Winter on Sillywrea Farm and horses pull sledges of hay to feed the sheep and. A travelling Farrier comes to call.
Farmer John Dodd is unique. He is the embodiment of living history. At his farm, Sillywrea Farm, near Allendale in Northumberland, horses still do all the work on the land. Elsewhere in the country, they gave way to tractors long ago. With the help of his daughter Frances and his son-in-law David, 71-year-old John relies on his five giant Clydesdale horses to do everything on the 200-acre farm and insists it is cheaper to use horses, and it's also kinder to the land. The changing seasons on Sillywrea Farm are the focus of The Last Horsemen, which captures the gentle beauty of a traditional way of farming now almost gone.
Beautifully filmed documentary series about a year in the life of the remarkable John Dodd who farms in the stunning landscape of the Allen Valley in Northumberland. John is unique: instead of using tractors, he still relies on five giant Clydesdale horses to work the land. He has passed on his skills to his son-in-law David and is now teaching his grandson Richard. Together they battle the elements to make a living for themselves and preserve a rare and wonderful way of life.
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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
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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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