Sunday 26 December 2010

Coracles and Edwardian Farm

Sean making a coracle on Edwardian Farm

I was on Edwardian Farm, episode 8, this Friday 24th Dec making a coracle. For those of you who have not seen it, it is an ongoing documentary about 3 people who live and work on a farm as they would have done in Edwardian times, 1901 to about 1920.

I spent a very enjoyable 6 hours or so with Alex helping him make a coracle, all of which was filmed. During the day's filming I went into great detail about how to make a coracle, but only a brief overview was shown on the TV. If you just want to see the coracle bit, then it starts about 16 mins in, and finishing it off at 20mins, the coracle being used at about 24 mins. I bought the book the other day and there is a small photo of me in it. Being a person who loves to know how things work or get made, Edwardian Farm has been fascinating for me, both Lucy and I love social history. I wish they had the time to go into far more detail both in the book and series, but I know they need to make an engaging and entertaining program. A program that I would love to see would not appeal so much to the normal BBC2 audience.
I do not like watching myself, especially when seeing it for the first time, so I  squirmed, like when I watch Ricky Gervais or Alan Partridge or even Peep show.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x1tgv
A bit about this episode and a photo of Peter  holding onto a rope and paddle. It is a shame that we ran out of daylight because it is important to show people how to paddle this very manoeuvrable craft. It would have good also to show Peter how to get into it as the first time he tried he went head first into the water.

Here is a link to the programme on BBC iplayer. The BBC only have programmes available for a short period of time, so a month after this was posted it will be too late. I also have no idea if you can watch in other countries.

Here is my previous post on Edwardian Farm

I have a booklet on how to make a coracle, for £7.50, it is a colour book with lots of photos. http://seanhellman.com/woodwork/coracles.php

3 comments:

  1. The oddest thing...since Dec 9th last year I have been unable to access the blog...all I got was the fan bird post and I thought you'd given up blogginIg. And then I noticed on another blog that they'd read a recent post on yours. Odd, i thought. I'd refreshed the page any number of times and still only fan birds. So I followed the link from the other blog and now I have 12 months to catch up on! It's like having an unexpected book to read. Wonderful.

    Just watched the VF episode and it was great. I'll email you to get a copy of the coracle book. I work beside a river and have access to a whole willow plantation so materials and water are no problem.

    wishing you a late Christmas greeting and a great new year.

    Andy

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  2. Hey Sean! Spotted your black fan bird waffing around in the background of the film. What a lot of trouble to go to for two trout fry! Can you make an ocean going one to get me to New York - it's rather pesky flying.

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  3. Very nice I would like to make one of this one day... Bummer couldn't view here in the usa. Looks like a neat show.

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Sorry, because of the huge amount of dubious people leaving spam comments for their useless stuff, I unfortunately have to bring back word verification.