Country Currents

For some time we have been sharing with our readers press cuttings collected by the Tarvin History Group and from your responses we know that you have enjoyed the trips down memory lane and seeing faces from the past. Currently we are working our way through photographs from 1987.

Today, however, we have something that is rather special which we hope will prompt even more distant memories for many and be of historic interest to newer residents of Tarvin. Instead of a photograph this is a film which was brought to our attention by James Lush, the son of the Chairman of Tarvin Parish Council. He found it under a "location" subsection of the British Film Institute archives and its subject is electricity. Made in 1938, it is called Country Currents and deals with the benefits that electric power brings to rural communities.

The film is 10 minutes long and towards the end it highlights three Tarvin businesses, Mr A Longford's production of horse boxes, Mr G B Radclife's milk bottling plant, and W. Vernon & Sons brick works, as examples of the way electricity is being used to increase productivity in Tarvin and Tarvin Bridge. The rest of the film provides many more scenes of domestic, farming and industrial usage of electricity but it is difficult to be sure whether these were also shot in Tarvin?

We, and many of our readers, I am sure would really like to hear from anyone who recognises any of the scenes, businesses, or people shown in the film. Does anyone remember the film being made and does it prompt more general memories that you would like to share with younger generations, and new comers alike, so that an appreciation of the past can provide links that help to maintain the community spirit that Tarvin enjoys to this day.

The film is free to view and can be found by clicking on the following – http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-country-currents-1938/