Down on the Farm - 52 Ancestors: Week 40

 "Harvest" is the theme of this week's "52 Ancestors" prompt. Most of us will have had farm workers in our family history.  I have linked family and local history to give a picture of  farming in days gone by in  Earlston in the Scottish Borders,  with photographs from the Auld Earlston collection - my local heritage group. 

Haymaking with a lovely view over the Earlston countryside.

The Statistical Account of Scotland for 1791 in the chapter on Earlston gives us an early description of farming around the village. 

"The farmers rear a considerable number of black cattle...which they fatten on turnips.  The most common crops in this parish are  oats, barley and peas.  There is also some wheat.  The oats that grow on the grounds at Fans are much esteemed. There is now a greet quantity of clover and of  rye grass sown." 

The account also noted that two fairs were held in Earlston  - on the 28th June  for sheep, black cattle and horses, reckoned to be "the second best fair in the south of Scotland".  The other fair was held on the third  Thursday of October.

 Hiring Fair 1909

Hiring Fairs, held in the Market Square,  were important events where men and women  farm workers, ag.labs (agricultural labourers), hinds*, shepherds, dairy maids, domestic servants etc.)  would gather to bargain with prospective farmers for work, and hopefully secure a position for the following 6-12 months.  

*The Scottish National Dictionary defines a "hind" in  Southern Scotland and Northumberland as  "a married skilled farm worker who occupies a cottage on the farm and is granted certain perquisites in addition to wages. 

Hiring Fairs were also social occasions with a rare opportunity for friends and family to meet and enjoy side shows and stalls - as can be seen in the two photographs featured, and a contemporary account from 1883 that appeared in the local press.   

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"The Southern Reporter":  1st March 1883 noted: normal;">

 Hiring Fairs lost their importance in the First World War and had largely died out by the late 1930's. 

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Bondagers were female farm workers in south east Scotland and Northumberland.   As part of their husband's contract (or bond) with the farmer, he would undertake to  provide another worker (usually his wife) to help as and when  required. The women  wore a distinctive dress with bonnet, described as the "last remaining peasant costume" in Britain. 

I have come across in census returns women aged 48 still described as Ag. Labs. Can you imagine what it must have been like doing hard physical work over many hours  in poor weather? 

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"Horses are absolutely necessary in this part of the country, for it is by them the farmers labour their farms and drive their corn to market.  They never work with oxen now as they did formerly." - a quote from the 1791 Statistical Account. 

Oxen feature in this old photograph which is described as on the  "Road between Earlston and Melrose".   This is now the busy A68 route through the central Borders linking Edinburgh and Newcastle.

My great great grandfather was a Carter - an essential occupation in transporting farmers' goods around.   

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A local directory published in 1866 gives us a further picture of the scale of farming in the parish.  ["Rutherfurd’s Southern Counties Register and Directory containing  much useful and interesting information and very complete lists connected with the Counties of Roxburgh, Berwick and Selkirk", published by Rutherfurd Printers, Kelso in 1866}.

28 farmers were listed with associated trades -  1 farrier, 1 saddler, 3 blacksmiths, 3 cattle dealers,  2 fleshers (butchers), and 3 carriers. 

Sheep Shearing

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The Harvest

Note the woman on the left  helping with the hay-making

 

      Building a Haystack

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Realistically, personal records on farming ancestors are likely to focus on landed gentry and tenant farmers, rather than their workers.     Scottish valuation rolls, published annually from c.1855 are useful in giving the names (head only) of the tenant and occupier of property and give us a picture, for example,  of the size of an estate and the different occupations involved in it management. 

My archive centre carries a wealth of information that can provide a background on life in rural communities - for example:

Advertisements of sale of stock

Auction Mart records

Drawings of farm machinery 

Field name surveys

Farmers' clubs and pastoral societies  - minutes and members' lists. 

Individual farm records such as day books recording activity and account books.

You may find titbits of information such as A. S Pringle of Kelso  winning  prizes at an agricultural show  in 1876 in the class of "Implements of Husbandry"  for "a self acting horse rake" and "a turnip topping and tailing machine". 

Such information puts our ancestors' lives in a wider context beyond just names and dates - cue the next prompt from "52 Ancestors"!

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