Mon, Jun 2, 1969
The first of six episides looking at aspects of vanishing Britain. Terence Carroll visited Norfolk to travel on the doomed railway from King's Lynn to Dereham just before it closed. This was a line which Doctor Beeching omitted from his cull of branch lines, but British Rail closed it anyway. Carroll found a mix of views amongst the many passengers on the train - some sad to see the line go and others who would "get the bus instead". The 28 miles of line closed in September 1968.
Mon, Jun 23, 1969
Deep in Dorset, at a village called Ashmore, there's a tiny primary school with fifteen children and just one teacher. With the pupils singing inside and the ducks quacking outside, it makes a picture that looks appealing to tourists but appalling to educationists -for whom single-teacher schools are an anachronism. This is the last one in Dorset, and one of the last in Britain.
Mon, Jul 7, 1969
Real English villages with real country people living real rural lives in them have almost slipped into myth and memory. One that's still left is Powerstock, in Dorset, complete and tranquil with squire, bell ringers, an old lady who still milks her cows by hand, and a vicar who does his rounds on horseback. This film catches the climax of the year and of the gentle drama of rural existence-the harvest festival.