COMMENDATION FROM DR. MIKE MALONEY: "IT REALLY IS OUTSTANDING.....YOU MUST BE ONE OF THE FINEST DOCUMENTARY MAKERS."
The late Keith Toule was brought up on a Lincolnshire farm and started school in the week the Second World War began.
Aged five, he was soon carrying a gas mask on his long walk to the village school, and passing sentries guarding ammunition. A few months later, in 1940, a Bomber Command base was built next to the farm.
Keith had vivid memories of wartime aircraft, crashes, and, once, being buzzed by the enemy.
From the age of six when he began milking the family’s cows, to his last specialism in strawberries, he spent 75 years farming....experiencing the horse-drawn era through to the technology of modern times. In this DVD video he evaluates the eras that he has experienced.
Keith, who eventually took over Blackmoor Farm, Doddington, from his uncle, tells how his family first went there as tenants in 1903. He recalls how they coped in World War Two and the bitter winters of that decade. (His departure for a care home a few months before his death in December 2023 ended 120 years of his family's presence on the farm.)
With the help of his night camera in nearby woods, Keith shows current wildlife while reminiscing about a more plentiful time.
DVD Contents: Introduction / A Farming Family / Life on the farm 1930s – 60s / The Farm in WW2 / High Yields / Wildlife and Weather
As a result of the DVD, Keith's story was covered on BBC TV Look North
Total duration: 2 hrs 10 mins. See obituary blog about Keith
Postage is included in the price to UK addresses. A donation from each DVD sale will go to Keith's beloved Hartsholme Cricket Club.
A Farmer Looks Back
Keith Toule looks back on 75 years as a farmer and recalls many stories of country life. He includes wartime memories of the bomber base that opened next to the farm.
