The Last Shepherds: 4
From the collection of
The Last Fishermen: 2
- Boulmer
- 2003-04-13
The Last Shepherds: 4
Retirement gives Dave time to work on his carved walking sticks. As winter brings harsh weather, Stewart organises the local shepherds' evening.
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.
Tags
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
1
The Last Fishermen: 2
2
The Last Shepherds: 1
3
The Last Shepherds: 2
4
The Last Shepherds: 3
5
The Last Shepherds: 4
6
The Last Horsemen: 1
7
The Last Horsemen: 2
8
The Last Horsemen: 3
9
The Last Horsemen: 4
10
The Last Horsemen: 5
11