A FASCINATING short film on life, the evolving landscape and featuring scenes from time gone by in the Tamar Valley is now available to enjoy on YouTube.

'Harvesting Time — Recollections of Life in the Tamar Valley' is part of the Cordiale project — a collaboration between the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and teams from other protected landscapes in south west England and north west France.

With a running time of just over seven minutes, it contains oral histories from market gardening families in the valley, historic images and recollections of market gardening in the early and mid twentieth century. The film also contains a short piece on mining the area, focusing on the emigration of miners around the world.

The film includes some interesting reminiscences from Tamar Valley residents Natalie Allen, Les Babb, Alan and Norman Preston, Alec Scoble, Mrs Jope, Stan Ayres, Pop Curtis and Phil Hutt.

It is not without some humour — Alan Preston talks about his older brother stealing all the milk, thus explaining why he was smaller!

Simon Bates, Cordiale project officer, told the Times: 'One of the project's objectives is to enable more people to understand how the landscape of the Tamar Valley has evolved.

'Several people, including Vanni Cook, Jo Selman, Barry Gamble and Natalie Allen have collected priceless audio-visual recordings of people who have lived and worked in the Tamar Valley.

'We wanted to bring this archive into the public domain, and hit on the idea of doing a short film covering the main ways in which the landscape has changed over the last 200 years; fishing, mining, forestry, and market gardening.

'Many people that now live here are astonished when they see pictures of the extensive market gardens and cherry orchards that have now been replaced by trees, both naturally regenerated ash/oak, and plantations of conifers.

'The chimneys associated with the old mines are still very visual reminders of that legacy, but the old stone, timber and corrugated iron packing sheds now merge imperceptibly into the green cloak.

'It's very important that people understand how and why the landscape has changed. We face huge challenges, not least how we will cope with dwindling fossil fuel and rock phosphate resources, and a rapidly changing climate.

'We will need to become more resilient and source more of our raw materials and food locally once again. It will be damaging if people object to any changes in the landscape in the mistaken belief that it's "always been like this".

'Harvesting Time was a collaboration with artists from Drawn to the Valley — led superbly by Tessa Clarke. We took the artists on a series of walks guided by knowledgeable locals like Natalie Allen.

'In October 2012, ten artists exhibited diverse pieces ranging from sculptures to woolen clothing.

'Children from Gunnislake Primary School created postcards from the future‚ and the Cordiale project ran two new films — Cousin Jack‚ about mining and migration, produced by Callington Community College, and Harvesting Time‚recollections of life in the Tamar Valley.'

'Harvesting Time - Recollections of Life in the Tamar Valley' is available on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAsFckY76cI">www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAsFckY76cI

The film can also be seen by request at the Tamar Valley Centre at Drakewalls, near Gunnislake.