Farming Memories

Two extracts from 'Within Living Memory - a collection of Norfolk Reminiscences' (written and compiled by members of the Norfolk Federation of WIs, 1971):

The Season's Round Mulbarton, c.1900

One of my earliest recollections is of grandfather's farm at Mulbarton at the beginning of the [twentieth] century. All work was done by hand, milking, broadcasting seed, reaping with sickles and stacking while horses helped with the ploughing, harrowing and carting. The great event of the year was the harvest. Men worked while daylight lasted, then by the light of the moon, wives bringing their meals, 'elevenses' and 'fourses' to the field. When the last load was carted the labourers were paid an agreed sum for the harvest. One year I remember it was ten pounds. Then came the harvest home in the big barn, an abundant feast prepared by grandmother and aunts, followed by an evening of singing and dancing. The harvest money was spent in Norwich on clothes for the coming winter.
The skim milk was sold to the labourers for a halfpenny a pint. Corn was taken to the mill for grinding, and the huge sails and roaring machinery fascinated me, as did too the fiercely burning fire and flying sparks as the blacksmith fashioned shoes for the horses.

Tallow Dips Mulbarton 1910

At my grandfather's farm at Mulbarton, where we stayed as children, grandmother made clothes and knitted stockings for her family of eight, made preserves, pickles, butter and tallow dips for lighting...

Evelyn Smith remembers:
'In the 1940s there were three farms in Mulbarton: Mr. Fairman at Malt House Farm; Mr. Jackson at Paddock Farm; and Mr Ralph Cross at Lodge Farm in Rectory Lane. I remember Mr & Mrs Cross mostly went to church in a pony and trap.'

Animals (& eggs)

Tony Kent remembers:
MILKING & CATTLE

In the 1930s and '40s cows were milked by hand. The milk was run over a cooling radiator into 12-gallon churns - later 10-gallons. These were taken to the road, lifted chest-high onto a platform for a lorry to collect. After this came the bucket-type milking machine.
W Lincoln, at the dairy farm, sold milk, butter and cream/milk cheese around the village. His was the egg depot, too. Jack Stackyard lived in the Rosery and kept cows. He sold milk from a churn carried on his bicycle. Ambrose Broom lived in an old railway carriage off Long Lane. He kept animals more for a hobby and sold eggs.

One man...was the finest stockman I ever met: he could calm any animal with a word and a touch. He cured their illnesses without antibiotics. He could walk up to a beast, speak to it, then jump on its back to ride through a muddy gateway. He told the story of a man he knew who sold his soul to the devil to gain the knowledge to handle animals! He used to tell his apprentices, "It's a poor man who can't beat his master". Many years later they met up and after listening to the former apprentice talk of how he'd done his job with stock, he said, "You have beaten me!". It was a great moment for him.

HORSE - POWER

Chris Mickleburgh worked for Dr Burfield at Kenningham Hall from the age of 11 to 14:
During the War [World War 2], children were alloed off school for 11 half-days in term-time for farm work, and all the holidays. Dr Burfield kept horses as long as he could - he had 8 horses and 1 tractor, and used horses for ploughing. After the war he'd take his horses to the Norfolk Show at Keswick, all trimmed up with braids and brasses.

Tony Kent remembers:

As most farm work was done by horses, there was a need for replacement stock and this was bred on the farm. As stallions were dangerous and could be difficult to handle they were kept at stud farms and had a regular round. They visited different villages on each day. They wore braided mane and tail and had plumes in their manes and brasses on their faces and chests. They wore a wide girth strap to which a martingale was attached to. Their massive necks were arched like swans. At 18 hands and up to a ton in weight they were a sight to behold. They walked beside a cart drawn by a 12-hand pony. In the cart sat the groom in a herringbone worsted suit, black waistcoat, neckerchief ('wropper' in Norfolk), a flat cap and boots and buskins - every bit as smart as his 'Tire' (a Norfolk word for an entire, or uncastrated animal). They were indeed 'kings of the road' and they both knew it!

Harvest

There is a detailed account of the Harvest at Paddock Farm from the Farm Account Book 1865-66 under Work & Wages.

Harvest and haymaking also features in the School log book in Victorian times, before holidays were set and attendance enforced:
1878: Aug 8th - Attendance very poor owing to Harvest having commenced. Closed school on Thursday for the Harvest Holiday.
Sept. 9th - school reopened but Attendance not good owing to harvest not being quite finished.
Oct 11th - Many children were away picking up acorns, so few were present on Friday morning that the school was closed in the afternoon.

1886: July 3 - poor attendance owing to haymaking
July 17 - A half holiday was given today on account of the Agricultural Show in Norwich.
Sept 17 - Attendance has been bad on account of the harvest not being finished.

Steam-Power

TRACTION ENGINES by Tony Kent
'Another species in the same mould [as the steam-roller drivers] were the traction engine drivers - to a true Norfolkman, "Thas thowd boyze wut druv tha troshin tarkle". What drivers! To one who has driven gun tractors and tank transporters they were gods! The steering wheel had a large knob on the rim which the driver gripped. The steering rods were chains, and when the driver wound the wheel one side tightened and the other slackened. [Towed] behind the engine was the drum, and behind that the pitcher (elevator). Imagine going along the average country lane and taking that lot through a 12-foot gate in one swing. They did it day after day. If the entrance was too muddy, the tackle would be unshipped, the engine taken in, and everything was winched in, and those boys could put the tackle to an inch. Now came the rough part. In the winter the tackle left huge ruts, and a boy with a horse-drawn 3-wheeled water cart had to negotiate those to keep the engine supplied. Much would be spilt. Frequently, the cart would overturn and lose its load, and the boy was called anything but a boy.

The threshed corn was weighed off the drum - 12 stone oats - 16 stone barley - 18 stone wheat - 20 stone clover. Two men lifted it into a wagon which was shoulder-height and it was then taken home to the barn. It was carried off 'one man - one bag' and stacked upright, two sacks high and one flat on top. The weights mentioned were known as 'combs'. Chaff from oats and wheat was bagged up at the drum and taken to the fodder barn to be used as animal feed. These same engines were used to drive chaff cutters which cut up an entire stack of straw in a day. They were also used to drive balers that tied the bales with wire.

Notable [local] drivers were Bob Loveday who smoked a 'snout-warmer' [a short pipe], often upside-down. He lived in Birchfield Lane and rode a 'sit-up-and-beg' [bicycle] with his back ramrod straight. He was not very polite. When loaded with alcohol he caused many a bet on a dark night as his bike rear-light zig-zagged along the road, sometimes disappearing into the hedge accompanied by much rich Anglo-Saxon.
Sid Sheldrake was an owner-driver from Swainsthorpe - quite mild, but at least a week late for bookings.
Harry Smith from Hapton was about the first of the tractor-drawn tackles. Harry drove a Marshall Diesel with a single horizontal cylinder which bounced when on tick-over. When the going was hard it threw out raw fuel. The tractor did not have the weight of the [traction] engines, so more winch work was needed - but NO water carting!

Each set of tackle had a crew of two - some had three. These were driver, and drum feeder, who cut the strings on the 'shoofs' (sheaves) and fed the corn into the drum. Strings had to be kept out. Some had a 'chaff & coulder' man who bagged up the chaff and cleared the coulder (weed seeds, husk, barley havers) from under the drum. His was a twilight world of dust. It was often the 'not so bright' who 'done' this job.

['Orchard House' on Norwich Road, Mulbarton, had its thatch set alight by a spark from a traction engine travelling from Bracon Ash to Swardeston (see photos), slowing for the bends at the north end of Mulbarton then accelerating to get up the incline north of what is now the Vet's - see North End of Village.]

Catch it - or shoot it...

At harvest, school children went to the harvest field to chase and catch rabbits. In the winter, ferrets and snares were used to catch rabbits. Rabbit pie was very popular. Rag and bone men visited the village to buy rabbit and mole skins.
In the 1930s and '40s people gathered watercress from the stream at the bottom of the Common [alongside what is now 'The Meadows']
The local vermin catcher was one 'Waxy' Cooper* who used his hands to explain where the moles could be found. One hand always contained his mole-digging spud which swung with alarming speed as he said, "And there's some more over thar." (From material written by Tony Kent)

* George ('Waxy' or 'Waxer') Cooper, who lived in The Rosery and whose family were very involved with the Methodist Chapel.

From Parish Council Minutes:

1920 "Rat Week": Parish Council asked to report number killed to War Agricultural Committee (nearly 2000 killed).

THE SPARROW CLUB
From East Carlton Parish Magazine, December 1915:
The Mulbarton & District Sparrow Club held its Annual General Meeting on Nov. 19th. In the report it was stated that the Club was responsible for the destruction of 13,765 sparrows in the past year, an increase of over a thousand on last year's record. In the four years of its existence, 49,950 sparrows have been destroyed. This figure gives some idea of the usefulness of the Club and the amount of corn saved for national consumption. Mr Hill, in an interesting speech, pointed out that the rareness of hawks made a Club like this necessary, but that there was no fear of exterminating sparrows, who, though they made great depredations in corn, yet were useful in devouring the seeds of the Common Wire Weed, and so helped farmers.

And from the same magazine, in December 1916:
On Friday 10th November the Mulbarton & District Sparrow Club had its Annual Meeting. It is the 5th Annual Meeting and we believe that, with one exception, we are now the only Sparrow Club continuing to exist in the County. It was reported that 10,473 sparrows had been destroyed during the year, making a total of 77,557 (sic) since the formation of the club.

[Gross exaggeration or poor maths there, comparing the 2 accounts!]