Building a Cob house in a day.

Imagine the year is 1650, a young couple, Jacob and Catherine are about to get married, but have nowhere to live together. Their respective houses are already over-crowded. Up to 10 or more people would live in a Cob house 25 feet long and 13 feet wide.

Hence the practice of erecting a house in a single day by the whole village for the newly-weds. A communal venture. Once the house was completed, the householder would treat their guests to a party of eating, drinking and dancing.

But how was it possible to build a house in a little over sixteen hours, and could it be re-attempted 350 years later? The following is an account of an incredible day and a brilliant group of volunteers who made it all possible.

Our thanks to the staff at Meridian Broadcasting in Northam for their help in sourcing this film.

Fabulous item shows the filming of several veteran car tag pieces for TV series 'The Avengers'. At Lord Montagu's Motor Museum we see the filming of the 'tag' pieces for episodes of The Avengers television series, where Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee drive off in a vintage car - a different one each time. Several shots of the cast and crew in the grounds of Beaulieu; Patrick Macnee chats to Lord Montagu. Patrick and Diana get into a veteran car; Diana puts on a groovy kind of face/eye shield and they drive off; they stop and the director gives instructions to Diana; as they start off again funny business ensues as Diana puts her feet up, then jumps from the car, leaps back in, clutches her head and so on. Diana, in an evening outfit of a chiffon over harem pants, has her make-up touched up. Another sequence is shot with a different vintage car; when it doesn't start, Diana gets from the back seat into the front and prepares to drive while Patrick goes to the rear to push, and ends up with a blackened face from the exhaust. He gets in; Diana drives off. Commentator says the crew are trying to complete all these end sequences in one day's shooting. Diana, in a blue cat suit, chews gum while receiving direction. In this sequence, Diana and Patrick start to push the veteran car which zooms off without them as they chase after it. Note: according to a press release on file, this series was the first in Colour. More details in notes on the clothes worn and the filming of these tag pieces; Diana's costumes were designed by Alan Hughes; Patrick wore his own suits! Cuts exist - see separate record

18th century Agisters and pigs with rights to wander are just some of the ancient traditions celebrated in this beguiling look at life in the New Forest. Less familiar sights are captured, too, such as broom making and logging, forestry planting and sailing on the River Beaulieu near Buckler's Hard. No film about the area would be complete, though, without the famous Forest ponies – who are seen here in all their equine glory.

Black and White
Director Roy Layzell
Featuring John Snagge
Released 1952

https://www.fawleyonline.org.uk/forest-heritage/
A portrait of the landscape, people and traditions of the New Forest in the 1950s.

Forest Heritage is a poetic portrait of life in the New Forest in the 1950s.

The cinematography by Roy Layzell, music by Clifton Parker and commentary by John Snagge combine to make this a gem amongst the documentary ‘shorts’ of the period.

It was commissioned by the Esso Petroleum Company in 1952, just as they were establishing a new refinery on the eastern edge of the New Forest at Fawley, but Forest Heritage is entirely concerned with the natural beauty and traditions of the area: ‘A place out of this modern world where simple pleasures are enough – a miraculous survival of pre-Norman England’.

A look at how cattle which roam on the New Forest prairies are rounded up and checked once a year. New Forest, Hampshire. L/S of a red van driving up a leafy road, it passes some cows stood at the side. Various shots of cattle grazing at the side of the road as cars drive past. L/S of several people on horseback rounding the cattle up in a prairie. Various shots as they round the cattle up and herd them up the prairie. L/S as the cattle walk through a stream followed by seven herders. Various shots as the herders on horseback follow the cattle. Various shots of the cattle herded together, M/S as they go into a field. C/U of one of the men on a horse. M/S of the cows crowded together, M/S as they are herded under a tree. M/S as a man approaches one with a pair of clippers, M/S as he clips a bit of hair away from the cow's back. C/U as he brushes it away to reveal the letter 'R' branded on its back. M/S as another man clips a cow, C/U of a young man looking on. M/S of a man putting a rope round a heifer's neck. M/S of a man on horseback. M/S as a heifer is pulled along by the rope

Mrs Mitchell fights for her home. Ringwood, Hampshire. Defying Hampshire County Council's ban, widow Mitchell plans to rebuild the half-finished house the council bulldozed. GV. Mrs Mitchell's partly demolished house. LV. Mrs Mitchell in front of her shack (improvised) feeding chickens. CU. Four pigs waiting to be fed in pen. SCU. Mrs Mitchell feeding pigs. SV. Mrs Mitchell walks to wheelbarrow, picks it up and wheels it out of picture to her demolished house site. GV. Mrs Mitchell wheeling barrow partly filled with bricks. She tips up barrow to empty bricks. CU. Mrs Mitchell pushing barrow over to empty bricks. SV. Mrs Mitchell's son and daughter clearing bricks from the rubble. CU. Mrs Mitchell's daughter helping load bricks into the barrow. SV. Mr Desmond Bailey, who helped to build the house, calls over Mrs Hughes' son Ian for consultation with plans for construction of another house. CU. Mr Bailey and Ian consulting over plans. CU. Pencil pointing to plans on paper of new house. LV. Mr Bailey and Ian Hughes marking out for new house. LV. Mrs Mitchell with the help of neighbours lifting off window frame from heap of rubble. CU. Mrs Mitchell carrying window frame with help of neighbour. GV. Mrs Mitchell with neighbours still clearing away rubble from the bulldozed site