Early film making at Welsh camp

From the collection of

Archif Sgrin a Sain Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive
Established in 2001, the National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive holds an unrivalled collection of films, TV and radio broadcasts, video tapes and sound recordings relating to Wales and the Welsh, from 1898 to the present day. The collection spans multiples formats and genres, both professional and amateur.

Early film making at Welsh camp


Men on holiday from work at a Staffordshire firm - and on leave from home – enjoy themselves camping at Penygeulan farm, Llanymawddwy.

Richard Ellis Jones of Penygeulan farm, Llanymawddwy, has opened his fields to a group of employees on holiday from the mechanical engineering firm Thompson Brothers [TP] of Bilston, Staffordshire. Amongst them is John W Meredith who has a movie camera. He shoots lovely footage of his host's family and friends shearing and haymaking and also his fellow-campers washing clothes in unique ways, receiving a delivery from the postman, and enacting a little drama.

This first trip was a success and the men returned each summer on August 1st and each year they would create and film a drama, the man credited as Jack Whale (seen in this film not getting post and being pursued by his fellows) being the main, shambolic character each time. They made ‘Farmer John' in 1930, ‘Jack Reforms' in 1931 and ‘We Regret' in 1932, each one more ambitious than the last. Then in 1935, Meredith worked with the local Reverend H E Hughes as director to produce a film entitled ‘Gwylliaid Cochion Mawddwy/The Bandits of Mawddwy', which retold a legend from the area of lawlessness and mayhem and involved the whole community.


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