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Title: DOWN ON THE FARM

Reference number: 3060

Date: 1955 - 1956

Director: [filmed by Nannie and Nan Taggart]

Sound: silent

Original format: 16mm

Colour: col

Fiction: non-fiction

Running time: 23.11 mins

Description: Cyclical year in the life of the Taggart family as they take up residence at Marywell Farm. Their first experiences of country life.

Nan Taggart and her mother were both keen cinematographers, and members of Aberdeen Cine Society. Large collection of family film. The Taggart family owned a granite yard up until 1956 when they sold up, bought a farm at Marywell on Deeside and moved from the city to the rural life. Both mother, Nannie, and daughter Nan, chronicled the early years of their new lives on the farm on film. Nan Taggart and cousin Glen Ross interviewed about the films on THE WAY IT WAS, p.c. Grampian TV, Tx Oct/Nov 1994.

Shotlist: Shots of Marywell Farmhouse as Taggart's family furniture is moved in with snow on the ground and shot of family in caravan outside farmhouse (1.18) shot of mother and father with toddler arriving at farmhouse (2.06) shot of cat and hens (2.39) shots of snow falling on snow covered farmhouse garden (3.09) shot of tractor and of men burning dead wood (3.50) boy in school uniform learning to drive tractor (4.07) cutting the grass using electric mower and "sweeping" cuttings (5.07) shot of washing hanging out to dry on washing line (5.26) brief shot of car driving away from farmhouse (5.38) shot of man driving tractor lifting lime (?) with shot of Esso petrol station in background (6.32) brief shot tractor laying lime in field (6.41) schoolboy drives tractor in field as men clear rubble from ground and throw rocks onto cart at back of tractor (8.03) woman lifting potatoes and going to water pump (8.26) shots of harvesting machine (9.23) brief shot man driving tractor with sacks of potatoes on back of cart (9.28) shot of man feeding pony (9.41) shots of men working on the garden of the farmhouse (10.49) shot of new grass growing and of cattle grazing (11.08) shot of men working on stone exterior of farmhouse (11.24) c/u of hens and basket of eggs (11.35) shots of ploughing field (hand and tractor) and men laying potatoes and c/u men cutting potatoes (12.38) Mrs. Taggart feeding the hens (12.51) c/u piglets suckling (13.24) c/u kittens (14.13) shot of man in kilt with his shirt off holding an air rifle (14.29) shot of bakers van "Mitchell and Muil Ltd" outside farmhouse as baker pulls out drawers in van showing baked goods (14.49) shot of Mrs Taggart and daughter picking cherries from tree (15.20) c/u of August calendar with dates 27 and 31 circled (15.26) man sharpening a scythe and scything oats (16.05) c/u toddler in farm garden playing with a croquet stick and ball (16.43) men delivering granite stones for building new porches at farm and shots of men at work building same (18.03) shots of garden showing new lawn and flowerbeds (18.16) c/u of cats and kittens (18.54) shot of men working on tractor, of newly cut hayfield and of men having a rest and a cup of tea (19.50) threshing machine at work and men making stooks of hay, shot of family surveying finished field at sunset (21.05) men making haystacks (22.01) men collecting stooks of hay from field (22.42) workmen building new porch (23.06) brief shot of pigs (23.11)