Report on ACT location walk, 31st August 2003
By:
Paul Tritton
'A Canterbury Tale'
60th anniversary location walk
Powell devotees meet on the 'enchanted hill'
Sunday, August 31, 2003
The Powell & Pressburger Appreciation Society’s 2003
reunion for devotees of Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger’s ‘A Canterbury Tale’ took place at Chilham
on Sunday August 31. Sixty years earlier, on that very
day, the first takes for the memorable ‘scene in the
long grass’ were made on Chilmans Downs, Chilham, and
Sgt John Sweet of the US Army joined the film unit.
The pictures above show (left) Sheila Sim (now Lady
Attenborough) and Eric Portman on what many of us call
'the enchanted hill'; (centre) the 'Powell pilgrims'
enjoying a re-enactment of the scene; and John Sweet
(second right) with Michael Powell, Dennis Price, Sheila
Sim and Eric Portman on Chilmans Downs in 1943.
More than 50 people, some from as far afield as Australia,
met at Chilham Station when the midday trains from Ashford
and Canterbury arrived (to cries of ‘Chillingbourne,
Chillingbourne.’) and enjoyed a three-mile walk to key
locations. Along the way several late arrivers joined the
group, bringing the total number to more than 70.
Their guides were Steve Crook, founder of the Powell &
Pressburger Appreciation Society, and Paul Tritton, author
of A Canterbury Tale - Memories of a Classic Wartime Movie.
The pilgrims are pictured (right) in this Kentish
Gazette© photograph, copies of which
can be ordered by telephoning 01227 768181 and quoting
reference number 471468
From the station, the group followed the waymarked 'Stour
Valley Walk' to Chilham Mill and the location where the gangs
of Chillingbourne boys lead by Terry and Leslie
enjoyed a battle on the river.
Photo: David Manners
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Photo: David Manners
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Left picture: Paul and Steve set the scene near Chilham Mill,
and (right) Steve as Bob Johnson and farmer's son Jonathan
Smith (8) as Terry re-enacted the dialogue in the scenes
where Bob joins in the battle and afterwards asks
Leslie and Terry where they can have a pow'wow
Photo: David Manners
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After pausing at the site of the ford where the 'battle' was
fought, the group headed for Julliberrie's Grave, the prehistoric
longbarrow on Julliberrie Downs where Bob, Terry
and Leslie had their pow'wow
Photo: David Manners
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Jim Smith (centre), owner of Stile Farm – in whose cornfields
some of the action was filmed – led us along a path he had cut
through the undergrowth to help us find Julliberrie’s Grave.
He explained the changes in farming methods he had seen during
his farming career spanning 50 years. For example, far fewer
labourers are seen at work in the fields today, especially at
harvest time, because now a combine harvester operator can
complete in a day and a half a job that took several men a week
or more. Cornstacks too (seen in a least one shot in
A Canterbury Tale) disappeared from the landscape many
years ago.
Photo: David Manners
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Steve and Jim's son Jonathan presented a playlet of the
pow'wow on Julliberrie's Grave. Note how trees now obscure
the view of Chilham Mill that Powell's cameras captured 60
years earlier when John Sweet, Leslie (Len Smith)
and Terry (Jimmy Tamsitt) had their pow'wow on the
same spot in 1943.
Photo: David Manners
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Photo: David Manners
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From Julliberrie's Grave we climbed to the top of the downs,
then rested to admire one of the Stour Valley's many noble
prospects and enjoy a well-earned rest and a picnic.
Immediately behind the group above are the cornfields across
which the Universal Carriers lurched before Peter Gibbs
and his platoon ambushed Alison as she drove her horse
and cart along the "Pilgrims' Road"
Photo: Richard Fraser
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During our picnic, John Clark from Canterbury recalled how,
60 years earlier, as a Chilham schoolboy, he watched the
scenes in the wheelwrights’ yard at Shottenden and the
'battle' at Chilham Mill being filmed; and later appeared
with his mother in the crowd scene in Mercery Lane, when The
Band of the Buffs and the regiment of soldiers marched to
Canterbury Cathedral.
Photo: Richard Fraser
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We then walked up to Old Wye Lane, where the 'ambush'
scenes on the Pilgrims' Road were filmed. The real Pilgrims'
Road, aka Pilgrims' Way, is in fact on the opposite side of
the valley.
Here, the group is seen walking to the top of the Rye Field
to one of the camera positions chosen for the 'ambush' episode.
The footpath they are following corresponds to the track
followed by two Universal Carriers as they drove away from the
camera. Other Carriers were filmed driving across the field in
the middle distance. The group at the foot of the hill is at the
corner of Old Wye Lane where Alison and her horse and
cart were seen in a long-shot after the ambush.
Photo: Richard Fraser
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No Land Army girls were seen during our walk but farmer's
daughter Charlotte Smith (Jonathan's sister) and her pet dog
helped show us the way
Photo: Richard Fraser
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Helen Lawson (who later accepted the role of Alison
in one of our re-enactments) led the way to the stile at the
foot of the 'enchanted hill'
Photo: Richard Fraser
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"Pilgrims to Canterbury often receive blessings."
"Do you think even a visit to the agricultural committee can
be the instrument of a blessing?"
In the field where, 60 years earlier, Sheila Sim and Eric
Portman looked across the Stour Valley in the 'scene in the
long grass' Steve Crook and Helen Lawson re-enact the dialogue.
"I'm going to Canterbury and I ain't no river." Richard Fraser (right) as Sgt
Bob Johnson and David Manners as Sgt Peter Gibbs, re-enacted the
scene in which the two sergeants picked blackberries and admired the
'noble prospect' of the Stour Valley and Canterbury Cathedral. Watching
from the wings on the left is Win Tamsitt (widow of Jimmy Tamsitt who
played Terry in A Canterbury Tale).
Photo: David Manners
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We then retraced our steps and headed for locations in Chilham
village, pausing near the mill to sign greetings cards to Lady
Attenborough and John Sweet.
After refreshments at The Woolpack we followed the route of
Polly Finn's East Kent single-decker up the main street
to its stop in the village square ...
Photo: David Manners
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Photo: Richard Fraser
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... and then gathered on School Hill to re-enact the scene
in which Bob and Peter played Catch! after
leaving the salvage collectors' store.
The tireless Jonathan and Charlotte Smith needed no
encouragement to play the game
Photo: Richard Fraser
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On Taylor's Hill we admired the narrow street and old
buildings that inspired Michael Powell's set designers
when they created Charing Street for the scene in
which Alison, Peter and Bob chase
the glueman.
No visit to 'Powell country' would be complete without a
stroll along part of the actual Pilgrims' Way (as distinct
from the lane to which he gave that name for his locations
in the film), so the walk ended where the Pilgrims' Way
runs past Chilham's St Mary's Church.
Here, Steve Crook quoted from Thomas Colpeper's
lecture: "There are more ways than one of getting close to
your ancestors ... follow the Old Road, and as you walk,
think of them and the old England ..."
Photo: Richard Fraser
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Photo: Richard Fraser
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Our thanks to Richard Fraser and David Manners for supplying
the photographs that illustrate this article.
For a CD of approx. 130 photographs taken by Richard and David
during the walk, send a cased, blank CD-R in a strong s.a.e.
and a cheque for £5 payable to ‘Kent Kids Miles of Smiles’ to:
Paul Tritton, 2 Salts Avenue, Loose, Maidstone,
Kent ME15 0AY
The collection made during the walk in aid of Kent Kids Miles
of Smiles raised £197.80 and this will help pay for an
extension which is being built at Footprints Holiday Respite Home,
Canterbury. Our thanks to everyone for their generous donations.
For more details of Kent Kids Miles of Smiles visit
www.miles-of-smiles.org.uk
Note:
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