Spring setting for the ploughman’s art

• Frank Farr

Spring is now with us. In the past one would have seen the ploughman with two horses ploughing the fields. Usually he would do about an acre a day.

Starting at 6.30am, the ploughmen would feed and water their horses, inspect the harness, fill up their firkins with cider, go back home for breakfast and then at about 8.30am set off to plough.

This happened in all weathers and they would finish at about 4.30pm. The horses then had to be fed and watered, brushed down, then checked again in the evening to see that all was well.

This is also lambing season and shepherds used to be busy at all hours, not only of the day, but also of the night, when I remember they could be seen out with their hurricane lanterns.

I remember Sid Smith, George Marshall, Charlie Tooge – all good shepherds dedicated to their work.

The hedgemen would be making up and laying the hedges. This requires real skill and they took great pride in doing a job which when completed, was a joy to look at.

It was usual to leave a young tree every 30 paces or so for future timber. The hedgerows and banks were a delight with the common primroses (Primula vulgaris), and we would pick many bunches of them for church on Easter Sunday. Today one never sees a brood of pheasant chicks or partridge chicks. Almost certainly, modern sprays and insecticides have taken their toll.

When the corn was being cut, just before the last few rounds, the gamekeeper would walk the corn to drive out the young pheasants, which were about the size of a blackbird and would be able to fly only short distances.

If you went into a wood you could often see the keepers’ game larders - stoats, weasels, magpies, crows, rooks, sparrow-hawks and buzzards might all be seen hanging there. They did not shoot them out of existence, but left a level number.

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