transcribed from a talk given by Mr Kirton to the History Group called ‘A Farmer Remembers’ in November 2005
A Coddington Farmer Remembers
John Kirton
My Mum and Dad were married at South Collingham in 1930, I was born 10 months later in 1931. We lived in the middle cottage of three that used to be next to Knott’s Bakery, Where Derek Tysoes house is now. My Granny Hall, my Mum?s Mum lived in the 1st cottage, us in the middle and a family called Henton in the other. When the elderly Hentons passed on my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dick moved in. When we moved across to Sunnyside Cottage Uncle Walter, unmarried son of Granny Hall bought the cottages and Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Cyril lived in our house and Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dick lived in the house Hentons had left.
My Father worked for Mr John Smith who owned the Sunnyside Farm. His wages were 25 shillings and 6 Pence a week, rising to 31 shillings when he became a Waggoner. This meant that he was in charge of the horses, getting up at 5o’clock in the morning to feed the horses and working till late at night.
The farm was rented at first, and then in 1950’s my Father bought the farm.
I went to the school (National school now Scout Hall) it had 3 classrooms. There was Mr Fordham (known as Johnny) he lived in Winchelsea Avenue, Newark. He biked to school ever day whatever the weather. Miss Gomer known as Lizzie Prodder, as she prodded you in the back with a pencil. Miss Thacker was the Junior teacher, she became Mrs Edwards, Miss Rhodes took over and then married becoming Mrs Town. The final one I remember was Mrs Bailey who had the jost gorgeous daughter who went on to marry one of the sons of the Wright’s bus company.
During the War we had two evacuees Audrey and Jean, Jean cried a lot and went home a week later. We took in Audrey’s elder sister Ivy who was quite a Tomboy she stayed till the end of the war. I believe Miss Gwen Trury taught the children but not in the school, they had a room, maybe in the Chapel School. The evacuees came from Great Yarmouth and Sheffield.
I don’t remember a lot about the war as I was only 8 when it started, but I do remember bombs being dropped on Stapleford Woods as the Germans thought that it was a camophlaged munitions factory of course what they were looking for was Ransome and Marles at the bottom of the hill. They did bomb the factory in 7th March 1941, I actually saw them drop the bombs, myself and Ken Maltby were going home for dinner, as there were no school dinners in those days. We came out of school and this airplane came in low across the spinney, heading towards Newark. Ken said, ” that is a bloody funny Blenhiem (that was a type of plane) and then we saw the markings and we realized it was a German plane. We went home as quickly as we could. We didn’t hear any bangs and it wasn’t until a little time later that we heard, they had bombed Ransome and Marles. We had incenduries dropped in the village, I can show where one landed in the stack yard.
Our Dad did not have to join up being a farmer, but to do his bit, he joined the A.R.P. (Air Raid Precaution) and he was an A.R.W. Air Raid Warden. They practiced running up and down the street with a barrel on a trolley to see how fast they could reach a fire. The oldest member of the crew was Jack Ingram. They patrolled the village in pairs my Dad pared with Uncle Walter. We always joked that they would be no good, but when the incendiary bombs landed in the stack yards they got there and put the fires out. Reverend Bully took his turn and did very well. Jack lived on Main Street and his house was Ist Aid Headquarters. The kids of the village helped with Sunday First Aid Practice. We were given tags on our wrists to say what injuries we were to be treated for. Well if the injuries were too severe we would be whipped into the ambulance and taken down to the hospital on London Road. We quite enjoyed that as we were given a biscuit and a bottle of pop as well as our ride in the ambulance.
Another thing I remember was being part of the Cubs, we used to go round the village collecting paper and scrap iron, this was stored at Sunnyside farm and every so often a lorry would come to collect it and take it off to the munitions factory.
Another thing I remember about the war was listening to Winston Churchill’s speeches. Even at this tender age I was interested in what he had to say. I would say to Dad ” will we win this war” He replied” Yes, Winston will pull us through ” and indeed he did. The children during the war would meet in the playground and give the Winston sign.
I also belonged to the church choir, which at that time had 14 boys, you had to wait for the older boys to go up before you could join. We met on a Wednesday evening Fred Fixter and John Knott moved up and we then went in. Four men in the choir Mr Ross, Mr Spinks, Mr Chadwick and Mr Burgess, Mr Spinks lived at a house called Wentworth, when asked why he had called it Wentworth he said “I went and it was worth buying” Later ladies were allowed into the choir, the first two were Joyce Burgess (later to be Mrs Phillips) and Pam Woodhouse.
The organist was George Wick, wonderful man and organist, kept the boys in order. He biked from Muskham for 2 services on Sunday and Choir practice in the week. Many the time I’ve been told off for making paper aeroplanes out of the hymn sheets, on these occasions we reminded him that it seemed alright for him to have the odd sweet or two during. The organ was operated by wind, there was a long black weight in the vestry to let you know how much wind was in the organ. Now Stanley Jakes was the organ man, but if he didn’t turn up one of the boys was allowed to do it and some of the more daring ones realized that if you let it go down the organ didn’t sound right and when challenged they said it was an accident. We got paid 6d for a service and 3d for choir practice. It was a sad day when George left to be organist at Christ Church. Margery Bradley took over as organist and when she knew that the boys were missing the Dick Barton programme on the radio at 6.45pm. she changed choir practice to 7.15pm as she also wanted to hear the escapades of “Jock , Snowy and Dick Barton Special Agent.”
At this time there was a flagpole on the tower of the church, it was raised at Easter and Saints days, also dropped to half mast to show the death of King George the Sixth.
There were two Sunday School teachers, Molly Sharp, the postmistress and Miss Bully, the unmarried sister of the Reverend Bully, we were given special stamps of which I still have mine.
From Cubs I then joined Scouts, the Leader was George Morrell, Patrol Leaders were Derek Bowman and Jim Margerisson and I was in Fox Patrol.
Now I’d like to say a little about the Church, the bells had been silent for quite a while and a few people wanted to learn how to ring the bells. At that time there were 5 bells in heavy wooden frames and they took a lot of ringing. We wanted to add another bell, a treble. When the estimate of £3500 arrived Ted Daybell was shocked at the price. The village set about raising the money, holding Jumble sales, whist drives and an envelope was given to each house and they were asked to donate what the could. Some put 5p and some put £5. When it was found that we needed a bit more a well known person said that if we could get 5 more people to give £5 each he would £50. Southwell Guild told us of the Baron Bell Trust and they actually donated the treble bell and Taylors of Loughbourgh were employed to re-hang the bells.
Colin and Beryl Reed from Balderton with two others came and taught my brother Derick and I, Derek Tysoe, Joyce Phillips and Jean Moore to ring. We had extra help from the Southwell Guild of Ringers.
Russell Barry, Bishop of Southwell, conducted the Service of Dedication and Beryl Reed rang the new treble.
Apart from Easter and Christmas there were 3 Harvest Festivals. The Thursday night service was the Farmers Service. One farmer, who was always late with his harvest, When we sang “All is safely gathered in” would add “But I’ve still got some in the field” We used to try and sit as near to him so that we could hear him say it.
A visiting preacher Rev Aubrey Steadman, a farmer himself, said he had only written one sermon and I use it each year as by the time I go to that church again, maybe 5yrs later they will have forgotten.
Sunday Afternoon Gift Service was for the children to bring along their marrows, apples and pears etc. and place them at the altar rail. These were given to the poor of the village and the rest to St. Catherine’s House, a home for unmarried mothers, that stands near Morrison’s in town.
Mothering Sunday, not to be confused with the American Mothers Day, was on the 4th Sunday in Lent. This was revived by Constance Penswick Smith and her friend Ellen Porter. Miss Penswick Smith was the daughter of Rev. Penswick Smith, one of 7 children.
They congregation “ring the outside of the church” whilst singing the hymn “We love this place of God”. The organist seemed to know just which part of the hymn you at as you walked back into church, we thought he might have stood at the church door until he heard you coming and then dash back to the organ!
. After the service children were given a posy of flowers, in days gone by
they would have been violets, but today a pot plant is usually given.
Miss Penswick Smith died in 1932 and is buried alongside her parents in the churchyard near the church door.
Previous vicars I know of are Rev Nutbrown, Rev Bully, who became the Bishop of Carlisle, Basil Wentworth, Harry Dight but the most popular was Michael Usher, who lived at the “Gables” and was game for anything. He played cricket for the village, a very stylish batsman but only one problem he often missed the ball! He also missed choir practice if there was a match that night.
Most of the vicars lived at the “Gables”, but it wasn’t till Rev Peter Wright came that Coddington had its own Vicar, as all the others were curates in charge under the Vicar of Newark. The new vicarage on Newark Road was built in early Sixties for Rev Wright.
Now for my years in farming. I left school on the Friday afternoon and started work first thing Monday morning. We had two horses on the farm Kit and Tommy, Uncle Walter who worked in the woods for the Forestry also had two horses that he stabled at the farm. A grey called Jewel and Diamond. As he was working the land he didn’t have to go into the Services.
All the work was done by hand, all the grass had to be cut by horses with the mower, then it was all turned by hand there were no mechanical turners in those days, it saw put into lots to be collected later by wagon. It was a long hard process, it was then taken to the yard to be put into stacks. You then had to put some straw on the top to keep out the rain, it didn’t always work but you had to try. Later of course all this was done by machinery. Tractors and bailers coming in.
Harvesting was the same everybody would muck-in and help. It was difficult as we were not allowed to run into the field of corn. You had to get a scythe and start at the edge and cut all round the edge of the field whether it was a 5acre or 15acre field. Then it would be raked up and put into sheaves, they would be tied with a straw band, left against the hedge to be collected later along with the others. Then the binders would go in drawn by the horses, the sheaves would be laid on the ground and you would have to go round and pick them up and stack them into stockes, these would stay out for about a week depending on the weather. If it was a good summer you could collect them by horse and wagon taken to the farmyard and built into stacks. If you were going to leave the stacks to be threshed after Christmas then they would be thatched. You would put the ladder up the stack, wearing kneepads loose sheaves with no corn on were used to cover the top. It was held in place with sting and pegs made of wood. If you were very tidy, you would get a couple of pegs and put them at either end and make a cockerel or something to make it look a little bit decorative.
Threshing would be done by Hough’s who lived at Brownlow House, they would go round all the various farms and each farmer would send someone to help his neighbour so invariably the thrashing gangs were the same people. This of course was before combines, so it would need seven or eight people. It was mucky work but enjoyable, we all enjoyed it. Sometimes if we were very lucky, the farmer would invite us in for a hot meal dinnertime instead of sitting in the barn eating sandwiches. If we lived local we would slip home for our dinners. Then combines came in, the first one I remember someone had to ride on it to take the bags off and by the time you had six bags you had to stop and unload. Never the less it was some sort of improvement.
The other really hard work was hedge cutting, it was always done with a knife, you would spend months hedge cutting. Thorns all over the place that had to raked up and burned were as today they use a flail and bits shoot off and the thorns are in smaller pieces. We still used to get punctures. The other hard job was sugar beeting. My Dad used to say “Once you open the beet field gate you never closed it again until it was in the factory” Because the beet would be drilled, you would put on 5 or 6lb to the acre it would come up really thick so you would have to go along and chop half of it out, with a six or seven inch hoe, you would go up and down the field hour after hour chopping this stuff out, a really boring job. Of course you didn’t leave just a single like you wanted, so you went along again pulling the extra ones out. That reminds me of the story of the Irishman that came across to help this farmer. The farmer said to him “I just want you to leave one.” When he went back several days later there wasn’t a plant to be seen, he said to the Irishman “I thought I told you to leave one” the Irishman replied “I did its in that far corner”
Once it was all in singles you would get a weeks rest and then you would have to go back and chop all the weeds out. The time spent in the sugar beet field was rediculess really. Then when it came to lifting time, you would get your horses and ploughs you would walk up the rows trying to plough the beet out unless you had some lovely horses that knew what they were doing they would wobble about all over the place and miss 7 or 8 beet, when you came back to lift them by hand they were still fast in the ground, so you’d carry a fork with to dig them out. You would get two rows pick up the beet bang them together to get the soil off and lay them on the ground. Once that was done you had to go along and chop all the tops off as you chopped the tops off you would go with the horse and cart collecting up all the beet then you’d go to the end of the field and tip them all out of the horse and cart! Then you would ring up Harry Hough and say can you take me a load of beet to the factory. Harry would bring his lorry down to the side of the heap and there would be 5 or 6 men loading the beet on to the lorry after that it would go to the factory.
Later on as crops got heavier they decided that you couldn’t just go to the factory when you wanted to, so they introduced a system that you could only take your beet when they said, so they would send you permits. These permits were for 6 tons, when you weighed in if you only had 5tons they clipped your permit and you added that on to your next load if you took another load in that day you use that extra added to you load.
Any way we got a tractor and trailer, it was only a small one it only held 3tons and we took it to the factory on our own. One day Derick went 6 times to the factory with 3 tons per load!
The first tractor we had was a Fordson with a handle at the front. It took you an hour to get it started. It started on petrol and then switched over to paraffin. We got used to it and it worked well. Then we had a little grey “Fergie”, nearly everyone had a little grey Fergie. These were the tractors of the day, and then when Harry Fergusson went into partnership with Massey Harris they became red Fergussons. We ended up with a Red Fergusson that if we could we would change every 2 or 3 years, only being on a very small farm it didn’t have a lot of work, that allowed us to get a very good price and the new one would only cost us about a quarter of the price. This was a good way of keeping the tractors up to date. Eventually it got that we couldn?t do that so we had to stay with what we had got. Then we both retired.
Now to talk about the village. In my teens there were 14-15 little farms in and around the village.
On Balderton Lane there was Mr Atkins at Hill Top Farm.
Mr Daybell at Hill Farm, Mr Handbury at Vale Farm and on the opposite side of the road to Hill Farm was Mill Farm owned by the Lee’s.
In the village- Sunnyside that was me, across the road were the Walsters at Charity Farm and next door was Old Manor Farm belonging to the Simpsons. Further on down the road was Hall Farm, owned by Mr Geeson. Carrying on down Main Street and on to Drove Lane was Manor Dairy Farm the farm of Mr Hollingworth. Moving on along Drove Lane was Mr Slack at Drove Cottage, which is now Allen’s Emporium (sorry Bernard!!).
Back again and going on to Newark Road was Ted Blacks’ farm now called Blacks Farm, then there was the White House Farm, which was Harry Davies’ on the corner near the riding school.
Then back to Beaconfield Farm and Mr Clark. Now Mr Clark had an extremely pretty daughter and I think if you asked the boys which girl they would prefer, they would say Marjorie Clark. Right Tom? or don’t you remember! You get a red card if you don’t remember Marjorie.
Also down Drove Lane before you get to Bernard’s on the opposite side of the road was Mr Richardson’s pig farm. It must have vanished. I can well remember it.
Now if anyone can help me here, Fred Parkes who had a farmyard opposite the cottages were Jim (Bell), where Parkes Close is now was always known as Parkes Farm. I’ve tried my upmost to find a name for it; he lived in the cottage next door to where Jim lives.
Finally we come to Moor Farm, Capt. and Mrs Cummins, on Stapleford Lane. Mrs Cummins kept Guernsey cows. Well in those days Guernsey and Jerseys were though of as once cows, because once they had stopped giving milk they were not much good for beef or anything else. I always remember somebody asking her why she kept Guernsey cows and she turned round and said, “I don’t keep Guernsey cows, they keep me”. Which in those days was good, it couldn’t happen today I’m afraid because they don’t get the profit and such like from milk as they did in them days.
Now during the war Moor Farm was home to the land girls. Ladies came from all over the country, half of them knew nothing about the country, some of them hadn’t even seen a cow!! Yet as the men went off to war the girls came and took over their jobs. They really did work hard, there’s no doubt about that and got stuck into it. Of course I was only a lad in those days and it didn’t interest me!! All the farmers and all the workers thought they were wonderful. They did anything from milking to tractor driving anything they were asked, the girls would get stuck in and do it. In fact one or two of them did stay on and marry local farmers.
Now you may not know it, but at one time Coddington was almost self sufficient, because we had a baker Mr Knott, who baked his own bread. He would go around in all weathers with his straw hat on and his basket on his arm, with freshly baked bread. In those days most people kept a pig to killed at Christmas as we did. We’d make the pies take them across to Knott’s, whod bake them and you would fetch them back the next day, they were lovely. You could get pork pies, sausages and all cuts of meat from your pig.
There was a butchers, which was Simpsons. I don’t know how many of you might remember there was an actual butchers shop next door to the house (Old Manor Farm) and they killed their own animals and sold the meat in the butchers shop. Then when the war came along things got a bit different. People tended to do things that they shouldn’t. I always remember Harold (Simpson) telling me a story that they were killing a pig at midnight, and you make of that what you will, and the door opened and in walked the village “bobby”. I imagine it would have been Jack Furbisher, but I can’t be certain, so Harold says “Ok I’ve been caught red handed” The bobby said “That depends if there would be 2lbs of sausages to spare, I might just forget my notebook and pencil”
I presume he did get away with it that was the sort of thing that happened in those days.
We had our own coalman, Mr Taylor, I think he was John, on Balderton Lane and he would deliver coal.
There was a builder, Derek Bowman, who had the yard opposite the riding stables. There was a flat-topped building in his yard. , Len Smith, who although he lived on Beaconhill Newark, I think preferred to be called a Coddington man. His son played cricket for the local team and his daughters went to the youth club.
There was Mr Lee at the windmill Balderton Lane, many a time I have taken corn to be ground for the cattle feed and such like.
There was also Mr Brownlow, who was the local blacksmith and he lived at Brownlow house before Houghs. They took over when he retired and were threshing and haulage contractors.
Ken Walker was the mechanic.
There was a garage and taxi service, run by Mr Longstaff, which also had a cafe.
We had our own joiners and undertakers, they were the Walsters. George Walster and his son Donald. My Dad was one of the bearers at funerals. There were 4 of them that did most of the carrying at funerals.
Walsters did jost of the joinery around the village and also ran a taxi service.
Then of course there was Hollingworth’s who produced milk. Mr Geeson also produced milk but did not deliver. If you wanted milk you had to fetch it from the farm.
Another character I’m reminded of is Jack Fryer. Now Jack went round the village on his bike delivering milk, he had a stiff leg so rode a fixed pedal bike he had a milk tin on the front of his bike and you would have your milk straight into your jug. There was no pasteurisation or fixed rules in those days. In fact we had a Jersey cow and her milk never killed me! We just had the raw milk straight from the cow, we never boiled it or anything, we just used it. If we had surplus we would put in a bowl, skim the cream of the top and put it in a small churn and make our own butter. So you can imagine Mr Knott’s new bread with home made butter, very nice.
Now lets look at the main changes in the village. The Village Hall was built in1950. The money came from village fetes, whist drives and dances etc.
The other big change was the R.A.F. Winthorpe which was built during the war. It called itself Winthorpe because the airfield was in Winthorpe but the houses were in Coddington. They went on a bit longer than intended; they were prefabricated and only supposed to last 20yrs. Of course they have been knocked down and a new estate built.
Another big change was the building of the Wellgreen. This caused a bit of controversy at the time Because people said “They are building an old peoples complex but all the amenities are across the busy main road” Two pubs, the Post Office, the shop and the bus stop, because the bus did not go round down there in those days.
Now I have a bone to pick with my friend Glyn because he does insist that the 2Green” is on Beaconfield, Thorpe Oaks, but the “Green” isn’t, the “Green” is down here. Unfortunately the “Green” is no longer because it has been destroyed in the name of progress. As I remember it ,it was a wide open space with lovely little cottages around the outside. Where they would have fancy dress parades, children’s parties and fetes and things. Unfortunately this is happening all over the country, planners, builders and developers systematically destroying the countryside, added and abetted I might say by local councils under John Prescott, some of you may agree with me some of you won’t, that’s my opinion and that’s what I’m here tonight to tell you.
But as I say that is how I remember it as an open space, today its called progress but one day it might be regretted, but that is for the future.
As I said when we were talking about “Wellgreen” the bus stop was this side of the road as was the pub, nowadays the bus goes down there but we will talk more about that in a minute.
The first estate built was down Ross Close etc. all the roads named after Coddington residents Morgans Close, Thorpe Close, Ross Close and Parkes Close.
Well Morgan was a fairly well known character in the village, Mr Ross was a Lay Preacher and in the choir, Mr Thorpe was well known and Mr Parkes was the man who gave up his fields for the estate to be built.
Then later we have Penswick and now Claricoates but so far no Kirton Road!!!! Please expect that before long we will have a Jones Ave and a Bell Road. I’m certain of that!!!!!!
In the village itself many, many houses were demolished after the war, including the one where I lived. The Red Lion Pub and the shop, maybe some of you don?t know that there used to be a shop right next door to me where the bus stop is now. There were houses demolished on Balderton Lane where Tony Bunkles’ bungalow is now.
Brownlow Hill several were demolished down there, also practically all of the green, as well as all of Hough’s Yard opposite the Plough Inn. I reckon about 50 houses in all. Today there have been many new houses built but jostly private but not council houses.
At one time there was talk of bungalows being built on Charity Farm, Nothing ever came of it and I hope it doesn’t for as long as I’m there, as I don?t want to look out at washing on the line.
Now I talked about the buses. In those days, buses ran from Newark to Sleaford and Newark to Lincoln.
The first bus in the morning came from Lincoln arriving at 8.45am; I know that did not seem very early, but in those days people went on their bikes, no matter where they were going. The bus from Lincoln was a double decker and it would go into Newark at 8.45 and come back at 12.15 (going to Lincoln) come back at 2.30 (towards Newark), back at 4.15. The last bus to Lincoln was 7.30pm so that was the Lincoln buses.
The other buses that ran to Sleaford were based at Newark, they ran like this- 9.05 to Sleaford 10.15 back
2.20 “” 3.15 ”
5.20 “” 6.15 ”
9.45 “” 10.15 to Newark
That was the number of buses in those days. Now we have buses every 30mins. They had a conductress who gave you your blue ticket and punched it in her machine, it cost 3d to go to Newark. Often the driver and conductress would be man and wife.
The village had a reasonable cricket team, for which I played for many a year. I was first of all Secretary then Vice Captain and finally Captain. Most of the matches were just friendlies but we did occasionally play in Cup matches. The best we ever did was when we got to Semi-final of the Hospital Cup.
All the cups in the area went into the Ransome Cup and the teams knocked out in the first round then went on to play in the Hospital cup.
There you would get Collingham playing Newark, Balderton playing Ransome and Marles. We did get to the Semi-final; we played on Newark town ground and lost to North Muskham.
The problem was as you got to the middle of the cricket season you got to hay and harvest time and so maybe half the team worked on the land, so you would end up with only 8 or 9 players.
The team played at first on Hollingworth’s field down on the “Green”, then it moved to Mr Geesons field but once he sold out to Charlie Wooliams, we had to leave. We finished up in Frank Daybells field on Balderton Lane, unfortunately never very successful and eventually the team folded.
There was also a tennis court down Drove lane on the opposite side of the road just before you get to Bernard’s place and I understand they had quite a decent team.
Today I play just play bowls and enjoy it. I would like to say thank you to Balderton Club for making me so welcome and persuading me to play after my last two operations. I really enjoyed last season.
Just to finish I would like to say a few words about the farmers of today. There are some bills from way back on the table if you would like to look later.
In 1971 Dad paid the Accountant £24
In1973 ” ” “” £30
In 2004 I ” ” “” £799 inc. V.A.T.
Rents
We have Coddington Charities land on Balderton Lane
In 1973 22acres £55
In 1974 ” £60.50
In 2004 ” £650
Now to take a look at farmers incomes
In 1973 we sold wheat at £55 a ton
In 1974 “” “” £60.50 a ton
In 2004 according to Farmers Wkly £65 per ton
Is it any wonder that farmers are leaving the land by the scores.
I rest my case. Now I’m ready for a cup of tea. Any Questions whilst my tea is coming.
Question – How much could you plough with a horse in one day in comparison with a tractor.
Answer. 1 man with 1 horse, about an acre. Horses tire so you would only get 1/2 a day with a single plough. In the old days a farmer would employ 10 or 12 people as everything was done by hand and horses. Now 1 man can take the place of 12. Some farms have so many tractors that they leave the implement on the tractor until they want to use it again.
Question- Did it help when shorter stemmed corn was developed?
Answer. It depended entirely on what you wanted. If somebody had a lot of cattle and they wanted a lot of bedding, they wanted a lot of straw, if you didn’t then the shorter straw was much easier to get rid of. They stopped the straw burning on the fields and that was when the choppers were introduced to go behind the combines and chop it into small pieces and it was easier to deal with when the plough went into the field afterwards.
Question – What breeds of horses were used
Answer. Shires Mostly and of course the white ones were percherons, but mainly Shires and Clydesdales.
Question – How many years did a horse work
Answer. It depended if you flogged it to death!!! In the sale catalogues they would put the horses ages but if they were over 10 they were called aged. I think a horse could go on to be 16 or 17 yrs
Question – What breed of cattle did you have
Answer We had Lincoln Reds. The milk people of course had Freisians. Hollingworth’s had a prize herd. The Daybury herd were also Freisians. Today there few breeds of native cattle they are all imports such as Charolais
Question – When did they build the houses in the Woods
Answer The houses were built for the Forestry Commission workers
Question – Would it be better for the land if we went back to usind horses
Answer The problem today is that everything is getting heavier, and you are compressing the soil quickly on heavy land on lighter land it’s not so bad. Our bottom field opposite Stapleford Lane is light enough to blow away and as it comes this way it’s heavier.
Question – Why are farmers not ploughing these days? They just seem to run the harrows over the land.
Answer They are doing it to save time if they had to plough as we did they would never get it done