National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales preserves and celebrates the sound and moving image heritage of Wales, making it accessible to a wide range of users for enjoyment and learning. Its film collection reflects every aspect of the nation’s social, cultural and working life across the 20th century, giving a fascinating insight into Welsh filmmaking, both amateur and professional.
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Cider Pressing and Tree Chopping
The cider pressing produces barrels of juice, and sacks of apple mash for animal feed; the chopped tree's logs become planks at the saw mill.
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Overview
Transformations: from apple and tree to cider and wood. Quantities of apples are pressed, producing juice that is put into barrels to become cider, the waste – apple mash – collected in sacks for animal feed. The fir tree is chopped down and cut into logs which are transported to a small saw mill where they become planks.
Filmed by Ion Trant from Dovea Farm, Tipperary, Ireland, who studied agriculture in Canada and then joined the staff of the Welsh Plant Breeding Station at Aberystwyth, where he met his future wife, Janet Owen of Maesmawr Hall, Welshpool. They farmed at Maesmawr Hall and the adjoining farm, Cefn Du, and at Esgairdraenllwyn, Llaithddu, Llandrindod. Conscious of an emerging gulf between town and country, Ion welcomed school visits to his farms and also devised/filmed the Country Close-Up series for children (BBC TV 1956-62), often featuring his own 3. He was subsequently offered work as a freelance cameraman on the BBC's farming programme and others.
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