Philip Erasmus Trevelyan (born 1943) is a
British farmer, entrepreneur and former
film editor and
television director, most noted for the 1971 film
The Moon and the Sledgehammer.
He is the son of the artist and poet
Julian Trevelyan and his first wife the potter
Ursula (nee Darwin. In 1974 he married Amy Eleanor Pryor (known as Nelly), youngest daughter of the entomologist and Cambridge Scholar
M.G.M. Pryor and his wife Sophie (nee Raverat) daughter of
Jacques Raverat and
Gwen (nee Darwin). This is a
cousin marriage - they are third cousins, their shared ancestors being their great-great-grandparents,
Charles Darwin and
Emma (nee Wedgwood) (who were first cousins). The Trevelyans have two sons, Jack (born 1977) and Matthew (born 1979) and a daughter, Susannah (born 1987).
Trevelyan studied at
Kings College, Newcastle and the
Royal College of Art. While at the latter institution, he directed and edited the film Lambing (1964, 20 mins, 16mm, black and white), which was awarded the
National Nature Film Festival 1st prize and was broadcast on BBC TV. His second film was The Ship Hotel, Tyne Maine (1966, 35 mins, 16mm, black and white), a documentary centred around a
Tyneside pub, concentrating on a group of people who go there every Sunday to drink and sing. This was awarded a silver medal by the Royal College of Art. His third film as director was The Farmer's Hunt (1968, 40 mins, 16mm colour), a BBC film of
stag hunting on
Exmoor. His fourth film was, as already mentioned and discussed elswhere on Wikipedia,
The Moon and the Sledgehammer (1971, 65 mins 16mm colour). His next film was Big Ware (1971, 16mm colour 40 mins), a TV documentary about George Curtis of Littlethorpe, near Ripon, a traditionalist potter. Between 1972-1974 he directed seven titles of the series
Portraits of Places, written by and featuring
Ray Gosling.
In 1976 Trevelyan was hired to direct a dramatised film about the
Mongols and the building of
Isfahan, to be produced by
David Frost, however the
Iranian Revolution curtailed the project. His next film was co-director and editor of a film entitled Basil Bunting (1979, 16mm colour, 60 mins) , about which was about
Basil Bunting, and was shown at
London and
Cannes. K.491 (1979, 16mm colour 60 mins) was an exploration film about
Mozart's
Piano Concerto No. 24. His last film was in 1985, with Surrealism in Liverpool, a Grenada TV film celebrating Surrealism and the arrival of an international exhibition as the new
Tate Liverpool with commentary by
George Melly.
The Trevelyans bought a
hill farm, Hill Top Farm in
Spaunton,
North Yorkshire 1974. The farm turned
organic in 1985. They farm
Swaledale sheep[1] to produce
Shearling meat that is sold locally[2].
In 1997 Trevelyan founded the "Lazy Dog Tool Company", which specialises in handmade hand tools for "chemical-free weed control". This has featured on
Gardeners' World (2002). In 2003 it was awarded a
Green Apple Award by
The Green Organisation. In 2005 Trevelyan also started a flour milling company "Yorkshire Organic Millers", who mill locally-grown organic wheat[3][4]. On 23 January 2008 Hill Top Farm was visited by
HRH The Prince of Wales.[5][6]