Rural Skills

The Living Working Countryside highlights the ethos of the whole of Frampton Country Fair. It is dedicated to the diverse interests and skills, of countrymen.

In the Living Working Countryside you can see demonstrations as varied as hedge laying and the making of willow Severn salmon traps, known as putchers; to bee keeping, wood carving, charcoal burning, ferret racing and apple pressing to name but a few.

The Living Working Countryside also contains the Rural Skills tent where you can find indoor craftsmen such as the Master Saddler, Wheelwright and Fly Tier.

Children love to visit the Native Breeds to see traditional livestock such as Gloucester Old Spot pigs and piglets and Gloucester Cattle, as well as sheep and ponies, poultry and geese.

In the Countryside Ring there are demonstrations of gun handling, deer tracking and long netting.

We are grateful to all the dedicated people who are here today to show us their skills and without whom much of this traditional knowledge would disappear.

Janie Clifford

Longbow Presentations - Rural Skills Tent

What Longbow Presentations show relates to the recreational longbow, the only type which has a virtually unbroken record of use right up to today, the war-bow having disappeared centuaries ago. Something like 3,000 archers in the UK now shoot the traditional recreational longbow and there are numbers of craftsmen who make it and its arrows and strings in the old style. Many of these belong to the Craft Guild of Traditional Bowyers and Fletchers. Do pop into the Rural Skills Tent and ask our experts about this fascinating sport.