Twenty Four Square Miles
The rich tones of the much loved broadcaster John Arlott describe the countryside and lifestyle of a bygone age.
Based on a 1943 study by the Agricultural Economic Research Institute at Oxford, this film surveys a rural area of twenty-four square miles, including the market town of Banbury, and analyses in detail the assets and present and future needs of the area, and how services and facilities might be developed. With indications of the planning problems involved, it illustrates communications, population figures, trade and industry, agriculture, housing, social life, public administration, schools and health services.
Made as an exercise to quantify the use of the countryside the film now evokes wonderful nostalgic memories of rural life in 1940s Oxfordshire. 41min b&w.
Harting - An English Village
Harting, a picturesque village on the Sussex Downs, typifies the traditional pattern of an English village as a neighbourly community in which people live, work, and enjoy their leisure together. Various members of the community appear in the course of their daily work and in the various active roles played by them in village affairs. 21min, b&w.
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