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DetailsOriginal Format: 16mm Colour: Colour Sound: Silent Duration: 3 mins Credits: Cyril and Betty Ramsden
Subject: Rural Life Agriculture
Summary This film, made by Betty and Cyril Ramsden, documents the process involved in the shearing of a sheep. The couple were semi-professional filmmakers filming both for pleasure and taking on commissions from companies such as the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Description This film, made by Betty and Cyril Ramsden, documents the process involved in the shearing of a sheep. The couple were semi-professional filmmakers filming both for pleasure and taking on commissions from companies such as the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Title-May is out
The film opens with shots of a pen full of sheep. A farmer opens the pen and takes one of the struggling sheep out of the pen. Using a hand shears, he shears the wool off the sheep in one piece. He does this a second time and holds the entire piece of fleece up for the camera.
Title-The End
Context
This is one of many examples of Leeds couple Betty and Cyril Ramsden in the 1950s filming an ancient skill – in this case hand sheep shearing – displaying their filmmaking skills and enthusiasm for local customs. It is noteworthy for showing, despite claims to the contrary, that the entire fleece can be removed in one piece using hand blade shears.
Betty and Cyril Ramsden, prominent members of Leeds Cine Club, began making their large collection of films in 1945 and continued into the...
This is one of many examples of Leeds couple Betty and Cyril Ramsden in the 1950s filming an ancient skill – in this case hand sheep shearing – displaying their filmmaking skills and enthusiasm for local customs. It is noteworthy for showing, despite claims to the contrary, that the entire fleece can be removed in one piece using hand blade shears.
Betty and Cyril Ramsden, prominent members of Leeds Cine Club, began making their large collection of films in 1945 and continued into the mid-1960s. Cyril had a dental practice in Headingley. Their film collection was made the subject of a BBC/Open University television programme, Nation on Film (2006). Although mechanical and electrical shearers had been available for decades before this film, hand shearers are still used today, especially where the climate still requires a small covering of wool. Although the shearing looks quite benign in this film, animal rights campaigners are critical of the treatment of farmed sheep and the practice of shearing.
