Jack Hargreaves OBE (31 Dec 1911-15 Mar 1994) was an author and TV presenter, whose enduring interest was to comment on growing distortions in relations between the city and the countryside, via the weekly programme ‘Out of Town’ on Southern Television, following the success of his 1959 debut with the B&W series ‘Gone Fishing’.
“We think we belong to the age of do-it-yourself” said Jack “think we invented it. That’s because we are so utterly unconscious of our past, because for a thousand years everybody was almost entirely do-it-yourself ”
Most well known to many as a presenter of the young person’s programme ‘How?’ in which a group of presenters explained how things worked… Jack Hargreaves also presented ‘Out of Town’ with the latter series being presented from his garden shed in Dorset.
This particular episode details the disappearance of 39 villages from Dorset and the likely causes.
Jack Hargreaves explains why 79 Dorset Villages vanished
In this “Old Country” (previously “Out of Town”) programme he explains how a Dorset River became home to 12 villages and how one caused the river to lose its name. Jack Hargreaves also shows us what he found of the past including the site of a leper colony and how they attended church without entering the church itself.
Jack Hargreaves tells how a Dorset River lost its name
The Great Dorset Steam Fair 1981 – Jack’s Country
In 1981 he presented this film on The Great Dorset Steam Fair. This historic documentary was shot on film and tells the complete story from harvesting the corn, bringing the steam engines to site and the thrill of The Great Dorset Steam Fair.
A Tribute to Jack Hargreaves
What we have now only exists as a consequence of the past and what we have now will determine much of the future. In these times what a scary thought.
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