The "Exmoor Village" Book and Television Series
In 1937, an organisation called "Mass Observation" was founded with the aim of recording everyday life in Britain using a team of some 500 volunteer observers who kept diaries and completed questionnaires; in addition there were a number of paid investigators who anonymously recorded conversations and behaviour both at work and in other situations.
In 1944 and early 1945, a small team of these investigators visited Luccombe, where they noted the everyday village life in minute detail. The resulting scripts were edited by W.J. Turner, and published in 1947 by Harrap & Co. under the title "Exmoor Village". The text was illustrated with colour and monochrome photographs by John Hinde, and charts designed by the Isotype Institute.
When the book first appeared in print, it was not met with unanimous approval in the community, many villagers being upset at the invasion of their privacy, however with time these feelings subsided and the book is now a very interesting glimpse of life in a West Somerset village at the end of the Second World War.
A (well worn) dust wrapper of "Exmoor Village"
Forty years after "Exmoor Village" was published and following consultation with the residents, TV director Bryan Izzard brought a film crew to Luccombe in the summer of 1987 and many weeks were spent capturing both everyday life of the villagers and a number of specially staged events, such as an attempt to re-create a pantomime of the 1950's, a meet of local hounds, a re-enactment of a street scene of the 1940's and a party held in a barn at East Luccombe Farm, featuring readings from both the book and unpublished notes, given by actors Clare Kelly and Chris Harris: additional commentary was supplied by Dan Farson. One of the original Mass-Observation researchers was also traced and took part.
The culmination of this activity was the screening on HTV West of the series "Exmoor Village", four half-hour programmes which were titled "A Close Examination, The Survey"," Luccombe Past", "Luccombe Present" and "Luccombe Future". The series was first transmitted in the autumn of 1988. They were subsequently repeated and also shown on Channel 4. An excellent feature appeared in "The Sunday Express" colour supplement of September 13th 1987 with the title "Luccombe Revisited", describing the making of the programmes.
Although the reaction of most of the villagers to the screening of the series was probably very similar to that of the residents of 40 years previously on first reading the book, the "Exmoor Village" programmes undoubtedly provide a fascinating glimpse of a particular slice of Luccombe's history.
Top: Director Bryan Izzard (left in group) and crew filming the skittles during the Village Fete. 27th June,1987.
Centre: L-R Dan Farson, Clare Kelly & Chris Harris reading extracts from Mass-Observation notes in the barn at East Luccombe Farm. The backdrop (a giant enlargement of a photograph from the book) still takes pride of place on a wall in the Village Hall. 1st July,1987.
Below: Re-creating a 1940's street scene in The Square, 30th June, 1987.
Author and broadcaster Tom Fort has recently had his latest book "The Village News" published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN 978-1-4711-5109-5.
In it he visits 22 English villages to discover how they are coping today and in chapter 16 "A Village Observed", he visits Luccombe, concentrating on the Mass Observation survey and the consequent TV series.
"The Village News is a whimsical, funny and revealing inquiry into the real story of the English village that we love and cherish"
