HAYMAKING 01

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Stanley
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HAYMAKING 01

Post by Stanley »

HAYMAKING 01

The main crop grown on farms in our area is grass. That's why, historically, we have always been a stock-rearing and dairy district. The exception to this was during WW2 when the 'War Ag', local committees set up by the Ministry of Agriculture, forced farmers to grow arable crops essential for national survival. Leaving this aside, our climate is suited to grass and the most important time of the year is when the surplus grass of the Spring flush is harvested for winter feed. Today, apart from a few small farmers like the Simpsons at Bancrofts Farm, this is all harvested as silage. Until about forty years ago it was haymaking where the grass was cut and dried in the field before being brought home dry to the barns where it was stored for use during the barren months of winter when most stock was kept indoors.
This process was completely reliant on the weather and in some years the hay spoiled in the fields because it wasn't dry enough to survive storage without going mouldy or even worse catching fire due to spontaneous combustion caused by the moisture. Burned out barns with only the massive roof timbers remaining used to be a common sight. The essentials for successful haymaking were good weather and plenty of staff, more than the farm could support year round.
One solution to the staffing problem was to hire seasonal workers and until fifty years ago these were largely itinerant Irish labourers who followed the harvest up the country hiring out to farmers for a month's wages and their board and keep. They were strong, skilled workers and good value. Many of them arrived at the same farms every year and there are many stories about them. One that I heard was when Wallace Metcalfe at Stainton Hall farm hired an Irishman for a month and it rained constantly. He had to be given work and so he spent the month mowing thistles with a scythe. This in a year when the big topic of conversation was that the cost of a hiring had gone up to fifty pounds a month and full board! A few weeks later Wallace engaged Cyril Richardson's farm man (they farmed next door) who was a German prisoner of war who went by the name 'Yup', in conversation and quizzed him about the artificial fertilizer he was spreading by hand from the back of a slowly moving two wheeled cart. This was something of an innovation. He asked what it was for and Yup replied "Is for thistles Mr Metcalfe. Is cheaper than Irishmen!" Wallace was noted for being 'careful' with his money.
Dick Harrison at Lower Sandiford had a regular Irishman and Mrs Harrison saw him one day getting dressed after work to go to the Moorcock for his evening pint. He took his wet shirt off the clothes line and put it on and when she remonstrated with him he said that it was a poor back that couldn't dry a shirt!
SCG/16/06/17

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An old horse drawn hay rake that has been converted to tractor pulling. Abandoned at the bottom of Folly Lane in Barlick.
Stanley Challenger Graham
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Stanley
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Re: HAYMAKING 01

Post by Stanley »

I am told that that rake is still there.....
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"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!
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Re: HAYMAKING 01

Post by PanBiker »

It was the last time I walked past.
Ian
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