Cornish Valley (1944)

Cornwall is the most westerly point of England, a rough, wild coast that stretches far out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was on these rocks that legend says the last ships of the Spanish Armada were driven and sunk. And Cornwall has a history that goes back through 4,000 years of seafaring adventure. A history colored by tales of pirates and smugglers and of wreckers who lured ships to their doom on the rocky coast. [Music] Inland the country forms a high rolling plateau. The fields are divided by wide earth banks and the land is cut by deep winding valleys and sheltered coups. Here and there, the pattern of fields is broken by the deep pits of slate and granite quaries. Some of Cornwall's slate quaries, begun over five centuries ago, are still being worked today. [Music] The queer white hummocks of the China clay workings make certain parts of the county look like a weird moon country. [Music] Cornwall has always been famous for tin. Tin mining here dates back 2,000 years. And today, Cornish people are wondering if once again their mineral wealth may not come into world prominence. For the land is rich in pitch blend, source of uranium and secret of atomic power. Parts of the country are still wild and uncultivated, swept by the full force of Atlantic gales. Wild ponies live on the moors, and sheep and cattle graze on the margin land. Farms, orchards, and villages are set well down in the valleys to shelter from the wind. [Music] In the south, winters are mild and bulbs bloom early out of doors. When spring comes to the Cornish bulb farms, they say there's no prettier part in all England. The Cornish climate is mild and moist. The soil is mostly shallow and patchy, and farmers adapting themselves to local conditions are mostly grassland and dairy farmers. [Music] In the valley bottoms that are too wet for crops and on the valley sides too steep for cultivation, they have permanent pastures. [Music] Up on the flatter fields between the valleys are the plow lands where crops are grown for feeding the animals in the winter. Fields and farms are small in Cornwall because of the nature of the country and horses are often of more use than tractors. [Music] In this country, the old Celtic tradition of family farming has survived through the centuries. There are few farm cottages and outside labor is scarce. In Kum Valley in the north of Cornwall, close to the Devon border, there lives the Cornish family of Allen, a typical family of farmers. There are four of them. [Music] There's Frank, the youngest brother, and Fred, and Tom Banbury, a son-in-law, and Ernest. Frank, the youngest brother, has a farm at Stow Barton. It used to be the old Allen's farm, and when the father died, Frank took it over. Frank goes in for breeding. He buys and sells all over the country. He keeps what they call in Cornwall a sizy flock of Devon closewool use. He's his own shepherd and naturally enough is kept pretty busy. As any shepherd will tell you, it's surprising how many things can go wrong with sheep, no matter how careful you are. And then there are always some that need help at lamming time. horses. Frank keeps his pigs now. And that's Frank's son, Bevel, taking them their feed with the old family carter, Emis. Beville's just 19, but he's already quite a farmer. And that's Mary Allen. She's Frank's youngest girl and just finished school. She does her share of the housework and more besides since Frank's wife came down with arthritis. That's her in the chair. It's a terrible handicap for a farmer's wife, but with daughters to help, Frank's family is lucky. [Music] Then across on the other side of the valley, down through the woods, across the stream, and up past the mill is Lee Farm. [Music] Fred Allen lives there. He is the bachelor of the family and a big breeder of red devon cattle. The red rubies of the west they're called in Cornwall. Fred's bulls have won prizes and shows all over the county. And that bull there is called valley thunder and weighs over a ton. [Music] Then down at the far end of Fred's fields along the stream and up on the other side is Buridge Ernest Allen's farm. 200 mixed acres, some of it good land and some only fair to middling. Ernest pastures are more sheltered than his brothers, and he goes in for milk production. He does a milk round of his own just around the district. His daughter Alice does all the milking and feeds and tends the dairy herd as well. Ernest wife takes care of the butter, the cream, and poultry. It's the usual custom in Cornwall for farmers wives to look after the poultry and any money they make out of it belongs to them. Ernest has been at Buridge Farm for 25 years ever since he left the family home at Stoartton. The next farm up from Buridge is Sanctuary. It belongs to Tom Banbury, Ernest son-in-law. Tom used to work for Nest until he married Ernest's eldest daughter, Nelly. And then, of course, there was nothing for it. They had to have a place of their own. They farm the whole of sanctuary between them, 120 acres of awkward land with just the help of a lad from the village. But they know they can always count on the family if they need the loan of a man or a tractor. [Music] All the same, it's not easy farming. There's no gas or electricity at Sanctuary to make the house work lighter. And they have to cut the logs themselves if they want a fire. Well, those are the Allens of Kum Valley. At the end of the valley where the stream runs out, is the old watermill. It's sort of in the Allen family, too. It belongs to George Herd, who is a distant cousin. In old Allen's day, all the corn was ground here, but now it's mostly used for sawing timber cut from the sides of the valley. [Music] In spring and summer, the herds do a busy trade here, serving Cornish cream teas to visitors. Up at the other end of the valley is the village of Kum Hampton with its old Cornish church. Every two weeks they hold a market at Kum Hampton and farmers come from miles around with their wives and families. [Music] A cattle market is always puzzling to outsiders. Everyone seems to be just standing around waiting for something to turn up and that's about what they're doing. But when a sale or a deal or a bit of bargaining takes place, it's the most important event of the week for a farmer. And then market days give everyone the chance to exchange news and gossip. And as they say, it does you good to air your troubles and hear other people's. [Music] There are usually a few big dealers about, especially when the store cattle are being sold. They'll be sent off to Fatten on the richer pastures up country. [Music] The Allen family usually look into the market sometime during the day. Frank Allen is a sheep grader, so he has to be there. And today, Fred is bringing some sheep up for sale, so he's there to be sure Frank grades them right. And there's Ernest Allen giving young Tom Bradley some advice about a cow he's thinking of buying. Well, it looks as though Tom could do better than that. [Music] And while the men are down at the cattle market, the women do the shopping. There's Nelly Allen looking for a spade for Tom to dig the garden with. And there's Mary Allen from Stowbarton getting some things for her mother. There are plenty of good shops in Kumampton, but farmers wives mostly always buy from the market stalls. In the old days, they used to trade all their butter and eggs and poultry there, and it's a habit they've just kept up. And then before it's time to start for home, the men all drop into the white heart to have one. There's a lot to talk over market days. how prices were, what the government's going to get up to next, why Jim Carter's leaving Wood Farm, and you know, a pint or two helps the discussion along. So, that's Kum Valley. And though some parts of Cornwall may be bleaker, and in Devincure you'll find more soft and gentle country, it's pretty typical of how they live in the warm and wet Southwest. [Music] It's the sort of life that holds a family together and hands on the land from father to son. And when a man has put his best into a piece of land, it isn't likely he'll want to leave it for any other in the country. [Music] [Music] [Music] A land of open windswept uplands and deep sheltered valleys. A country of family farms with little outside help or labor. [Music]