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GAME FAIR

MetadataFramesRelated records
Metadata

WORK ID: YFA 5631 (Master Record)

TitleYearDate
GAME FAIR1972 1972-01-01
Details Original Format: 16mm
Colour: Colour
Sound: Sound
Duration: 9 mins 11 secs

Subject: Rural Life
Agriculture



Summary
This short film by Eric Hall takes a look round the CLA (Country Landowners’ Association) Game Fair held at Raby Castle, County Durham, in 1972. Along with various stalls offering equipment for country pursuits, there are demonstrations of clay pigeon shooting, fishing, archery and falconry.
Description
This short film by Eric Hall takes a look round the CLA (Country Landowners’ Association) Game Fair held at Raby Castle, County Durham, in 1972. Along with various stalls offering equipment for country pursuits, there are demonstrations of clay pigeon shooting, fishing, archery and falconry. Title – Game Fair 1972, by J. Eric Hall The film opens with a pamphlet for the CLA game fair, various postcards showing rural scenes and wildlife, and a copy of Shooting Times & Country Magazine....
This short film by Eric Hall takes a look round the CLA (Country Landowners’ Association) Game Fair held at Raby Castle, County Durham, in 1972. Along with various stalls offering equipment for country pursuits, there are demonstrations of clay pigeon shooting, fishing, archery and falconry. Title – Game Fair 1972, by J. Eric Hall The film opens with a pamphlet for the CLA game fair, various postcards showing rural scenes and wildlife, and a copy of Shooting Times & Country Magazine. On a sunny day, a woman crosses a village green carrying a camera, and begins to film from a small bridge. In the grounds of Raby Castle, crowds of visitors are gathered on the banks of the river and various dogs on leads are seen. At a clay pigeon shooting demonstration, men line up with guns, while another operates the clay pigeon thrower. Patrons walk around with shotguns over their shoulders and spent cartridges are seen in the grass. A range of taxidermy is on display at a stall, including a pheasant and other birds. Visitors are seen perusing the vendors’ merchandise, including stalls for Herbert Johnson, civil and military hatters, and Clarksons of Hawick, knitwear and tweed merchants. Further stands offer shoes, brooms, hand painted leather goods and fishing rods. Men are seen fishing on the banks of the river while spectators look on. People eat and drink from a bar in a tent. A man in leather falconry clothing holds a bird of prey and addresses the camera. An archery display is given and visitors have a go with simple bows. Further shooting demonstrations are seen, of woodpigeon and springing teal layouts. Instructors offer guidance to the shooters. Fishing experts are seen giving a casting demonstration from a short jetty in the river. The film ends with a view of a small folly in the castle grounds. Title – The End
Context
Wandering amateur filmmaker Eric Hall of Bradford gives us a great overview of the kind of stalls and events to be seen in the early 1970s.  This one at Lord Barnard's home of Raby Castle, County Durham. These were participatory events, and here we see several punters having a go at clay shooting, as well as marvelling at the expert fisherman as they demonstrate their casting skills. Eric Hall began making films in 1929, becoming one-time Chairman of the North East Region of the...
Wandering amateur filmmaker Eric Hall of Bradford gives us a great overview of the kind of stalls and events to be seen in the early 1970s.  This one at Lord Barnard's home of Raby Castle, County Durham. These were participatory events, and here we see several punters having a go at clay shooting, as well as marvelling at the expert fisherman as they demonstrate their casting skills.

Eric Hall began making films in 1929, becoming one-time Chairman of the North East Region of the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers and President of Bradford Cine Circle.  With its 200 acres of deer park Raby Castle is an appropriate venue for a game fair.  In the 1950s shooting game rapidly expanded, with a sharp increase in game licenses, as wider sections of the population took up shooting.  To enable this breeding pheasants rapidly increased (by 2004 35 million pheasant poults were released to be shot).  Game fairs are a late twentieth century invention of the Country Landowners' Association, established in 1907 (since 2000 the Country Land and Business Association), the first one being in 1958.
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