© Martin Perryman Collection
Mowing grass, Drewston 1930s © Martin Perryman Collection
Mowing grass, Drewston 1930s © Martin Perryman Collection
What was the day-to-day routine on a farm on edge of Dartmoor 130 years ago?
As there’s no one alive to tell us, the next best thing are diaries kept by farmers of their working day. These are a rarity, but recently one fell into the hands of the Chagford Archive: a small battered notebook, recording three years of farm work, from 1888 to 1890. It’s anonymous, but written, it seems, by a farm manager who gives a detailed account of all the work that went on in a large, mixed and apparently prosperous farm near Chagford at that time.
Our diarist names the farm labourers and the jobs they do (noting their absences), as well as the thatchers and tradesmen, merchants and shopkeepers that he does business with. He writes of crops being sown and harvested: wheat, barley, rye, turnips, mangolds, apples and apple trees, cabbages and tons of potatoes, reminding us that at that time potatoes were an important cash crop around Chagford and Moreton.
The men are ploughing and liming, walling and hedging and comb rye straw which is sold off in bundles for thatching. Pigs are slaughtered, sheep sheared and cattle moved around, many ending up at local markets, although there’s no mention of dairy or milking. Bees are attended to, ducks and chickens are sold, along with rabbits by the score. Catching rats is almost a daily occupation.
So let’s look at some of the things he’s written about over a few days in May 1890 – 131 years ago, starting the week on the 4th and being a Sunday it’s left blank: no work is done on a Sunday. I’ve retained the original punctuation, abbreviations and spelling.
4. Sunday
5. Dung to Broadpark. Combing reed. Rolling meadows. Ewes and lambs finished turnips, out to grass. Daniel spars and bee buts. Mr Waldy here. Pony served by bay colt ‘Bobbie’ by Secret of the Valley.
6. Polly and Darby tried to Secret of the Valley. Cut and drew hay from Gt. Close and dung. Aggett absent ….Pleasant had inflammation of kidney vein, rubbed in lotion (nitre, turpentine and oil).
7. Daniel spars. One bundle hay 40lbs. Drawing dung to Broadpark. Cleared away hurdles. Aggett absent. Two masons indoors.
8. Two masons. Daniel cut thatch over our room. 1 plow and 3 men Broadpk.
Two rollers and drags Broadpark. Clear Hurdles etc. and mangel, John Hutchings 1lb mangel seed. Daniel ¼lb. Mr. A. Rowe 12lbs.
9. R Hill castrated 62 lambs. (3 rams saved) Drilled part Beanpark mangel. 1 plow Broadpark. Daniel thatching.
10. Sent away 4 tons Bonums [kind of potato] to Carline. 1 plow finished Broadpark. Mangel ground. Flatpolls [cabbages]…in Yonder Garden. Daniel thatching. Large keg ale from 3 Crowns.
11. Sunday. Horses lay out.
13. Drilled Broadpark mangold (2lbs Tucker’s Druid) Joe making reed. Wm. Ball and Daniel absent. Countess foaled, light bay stallion, Star, two white feet behind. Polly tried to Secret of Valley.
Throughout the diary the animal most mentioned are horses and usually by name: for ploughing, for riding, for carts, for hunting, for feeding, grooming and docking. This is the time when the horse was central to rural work and to the life and leisure of people of his class. Significantly, the one occasion when he strays strictly from an account of quotidian farm work is when he writes about the death of a much-loved mare called Tidy and its pedigree:
….jet black mare 14.2 h.h. 25 years old; very handsome, beautiful temper; very quick plucky and safe but very ticklish and great kicker; worked in team all her days on account of it, failed in her hind legs, perfectly sound in mind and limb else. Could never get a foal from her.…. My Gr Grandfather bought her grand-dam from Mr. Nosworthy, Ford, Manaton and used her solely for riding, she died. Called ‘Fanny’ at 33 years old. I rode her hunting at 30 years old; a beautiful hack, very bad to catch when turned out to grass, granddam of the best cobs for miles around…Tidy was foaled over at Drewston Bottoms on New Year’s Day in the snow and fetched in a cart.
There’s a passion for horses, certainly, but among all the detail in the diary he says very little else about himself. But we do learn that he loves hunting, with 30 different occasions mentioned in the three years of the diary and that having a haircut was important enough to mention – nine times in three years. So our anonymous diarist must have been well turned out.
The diary is in a very fragile condition and is now in the care of the Devon Record Office. But over the next few months we’ll put extracts on the Chagford Local History society website. The website is worth a look at any time as it contains a wealth of information about local history: www.chagfordlocalhistorysociety.org.uk
By Ralph Mackridge