Jack Hargreaves - ratting sticks, coppicing, wattle hurdles

[brigit]

Just had to post this wonderful video in case anyone hasn't seen it!

Jack Hargreaves - ratting sticks, coppicing, wattle hurdles

B x

[brigit]

Oops.....I forgot the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bl1HQg7aCo&feature=youtu.be

[garethw]

Brilliant!! I think watching 'Out of Town' as a kid was the start of my love affair with the outdoors, fishing and all things in the country. Brings back memories...
cheers
Gareth

[Martin]

Thanks Brigit. I've just spent a very pleasurable hour watching Jack Hargreaves and feeling very very nostalgic.

Martin

[jus_young]

Absolutely fascinating! Thanks for the link Brigit, I will be looking at a few more of these. It was also interesting to see the tools that were used in the old days of coppicing. We used the same tools at Daves on his working weekends. Old Jack mentioned about the fact that the tools are now more collectors pieces and difficult to get hold of and there we were using them in a woodland and had been recently made by the woodsman himself.

Nice thought that one :)

[tadpole]

Absolutely fascinating! Thanks for the link Brigit, I will be looking at a few more of these. It was also interesting to see the tools that were used in the old days of coppicing. We used the same tools at Daves on his working weekends. Old Jack mentioned about the fact that the tools are now more collectors pieces and difficult to get hold of and there we were using them in a woodland and had been recently made by the woodsman himself.

Nice thought that one :)

Jack Hargreaves, a London lad, born of a wealthy wool merchant family, lived most of his life in the outskirts of London, ok he and his brothers spent the summers on the farm of a friend of the families who lived in Buckinghamshire, from aged six. He spent all his early life in London; he went to a London school, attended university in London started training as a vet but ended up as a journalist. After the war he joined the NFU in 1950s.
It was not until he was in the last half of his life that he became, something he truly aspired to, as a country gent.
I worked with a chap in Southampton in the early 1980's who advised on some of the ‘how’ programmes (he was a flour miller) who knew Jack, he said that Jack was a good man and a quick learner, show him once and he would be able to do it almost as if he had been doing all it all his life, or at least give the impression on TV that this was the case.

[Metal mug]

This is quite funny as I was gonna start a thread about the Jack Hargreaves DVDs you can get. :) They're a good watch.

[sibadd]

Hullo. I'm new here. Picked up the tail-end of this thread. I'm Jack's stepson Simon, wrote a Wikipedia piece about him and have been streaming old clips of films he broadcast that have kindly been sent to me by people who recorded them at the time. Not the best quality but I like them and they appear quite rarely. `i've been floating details on a Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/32025851632/

If anyone but anyone has - in the attic - old tapes of Out of Town from Southern TV (1960-1981) or Old Country (1982-1985) on Channel 4 I'd be so pleased if they'd get in touch. Not commercial, but to archive and stream for those who may enjoy them. These clips should not be confused with the VHS/DVD compilation of 27 films also called Out of Town that my stepfather put together in 1986 and introduced from his real shed at Raven Cottage, Belchalwell in Dorset, rather than the studio 'shed' in the earlier programmes. Happy New Year 2012. It's JH's 100th anniversary, he being born 31 December 1911.

[jus_young]

:welcome: to Natural Bushcraft! You never know, something might just turn up :)

[sibadd]

Yes indeed. Thanks for your optimism. It looks as if 34 original master tapes from Out of Town have been unearthed just before Christmas. I'm waiting to check them over. S

[markal17]

great finde they were great vids of even greater times thanks

[Humakt]

For Christmas I got the full set of 'Out Of Town' DVDs this year.
There's about 8 or 9 of them, with three episodes per disc, so not sure if they represent the entire Out Of Town output. Either way, I'm in for many hours nostalgia.

[sibadd]

Good morning Humakt. What you will get will be 27 episodes (or rather approx 12 minute half episodes) of location films by Stan Brehaut from Out of Town programmes that Jack selected from close to 20 year's worth of film. In fact a small sample of the whole archive:
1. Appleby Fair/Ramming Time, New Forest Point to Point/Apple Grafting and Kingfishers/Model Carts
2.Sheep Shearing/Sea Bream, Sweetheart Story/Tyring a Cart and Farm Sale/Fishing in a Gale/Forest Fire
3. Market Day/Minnow Trap/Lobster Boat, Iron Ponds/Lobster Breeding and Romney Marsh/Pumpkins.
4. Lambing/Mayfly, Mole Catcher/High School Horse and Rake Maker/Stage Coach.
5. Bee-Skips/Pheasant Shooting, Tidal Mill/Ice Fishing and Fly Casting/The Log Splitter.
6. The Hidden Stream/Deer Shoot, The Shooting Master and British Finches/Yerro’s Operation.
7. Stour River, Hacienda/Bullfight and House Building/Trout and Grayling.
8. Freeze Branding/Cider Making, Trammel Nets/The Coach Builder and Big Skate/Pannage.
9. Cod Fishing/Centenarian Angler, Charcoal Burners/Pigeon Shooting and Long Distance Ride.
Jack included these in a new compilation of his own selecting in 1986, adding a new soundtrack and commentary. Instead of filming them from a studio 'shed' he used his real shed next to Raven Cottage, belchalwell in Dorset. You can see a small part of the countryside through his shed windows as well as diverse array of tools and equipment. It is from this shed he made one more broadcast that I have linked on the margins of my website Democracy Street: http://vimeo.com/13408662

[Metal mug]

For Christmas I got the full set of 'Out Of Town' DVDs this year.
There's about 8 or 9 of them, with three episodes per disc, so not sure if they represent the entire Out Of Town output. Either way, I'm in for many hours nostalgia.And a good set of DVDs they are too. :)

[happybonzo]

There's quite a lot of "Out of Town" on YouTube

[sibadd]

In fact there is not that much Out of Town as these programmes have almost entirely disappeared. The clips of my stepfather's broadcasts that I've been streaming come, with v.few exceptions, from OOT's successor 'Old Country' http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?sq=Hargreaves
I am always looking for original copies of OOT like this last one from Parsonage Down that was broadcast in 1981: http://vimeo.com/27971819
The OOT DVDs do use a small sample - 27 archive films from 20 years filming on the old OOT - but they were made in 1986 with a new commentary introduced by Jack from his shed at Raven Cottage. These if streamed on YouTube or anywhere else are likely to attract the attention of copyright lawyers from the company with whom JH brokered a deal to fund their production. I do not own them unlike the original OOTs and Old Country clips, which I strive to make available on the web when they come my way, even when the quality's a bit shaky. You can tell which are the 'restricted' versions of Out of Town because you can see the countryside through the windows of J's real shed from where he speaks. Regards Simon

[happybonzo]

Many thanks for your reply

[Metal mug]

In fact there is not that much Out of Town as these programmes have almost entirely disappeared. The clips of my stepfather's broadcasts that I've been streaming come, with v.few exceptions, from OOT's successor 'Old Country' http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?sq=Hargreaves
I am always looking for original copies of OOT like this last one from Parsonage Down that was broadcast in 1981: http://vimeo.com/27971819
The OOT DVDs do use a small sample - 27 archive films from 20 years filming on the old OOT - but they were made in 1986 with a new commentary introduced by Jack from his shed at Raven Cottage. These if streamed on YouTube or anywhere else are likely to attract the attention of copyright lawyers from the company with whom JH brokered a deal to fund their production. I do not own them unlike the original OOTs and Old Country clips, which I strive to make available on the web when they come my way, even when the quality's a bit shaky. You can tell which are the 'restricted' versions of Out of Town because you can see the countryside through the windows of J's real shed from where he speaks. Regards Simon

Well if you find any more of Jack's films keep us posted.

[sibadd]

You're welcome. Did I mention that 34 original OOT's were at last discovered (recovered) only a few weeks ago by a technician who was also a fan and took the initiative to preserve what might otherwise have been discarded. I'm just in the course of viewing a sample. No money involved, just shared pleasure in their preserving. Enjoy the DVDs. You may know that Delta have just bought a licence from Endemol to re-issue them so they should become more available during 2012. Happy New Year. S