Life as an Essex Agricultural Labourer 1840-1920 (Part 2)

In Essex rural villages, the lives of individuals were regulated by the changing seasons and the weather. Agricultural labourers were, quite literally, the backbone of the local economy and, unlike now, the countryside was a busy place.

The farming season began in September when wheat for the next year was sown. The grain was either drilled or dibbed.

Barley was sown from January to May, though usually in March. The seed was broad-cast on the land. Clover seed was also broad-cast late in the spring. Oats were drilled around the same time.

Peas were drilled in March after much mucking of the ground. Turnips were also drilled.

Typically farms followed a rotation of crops: "first fallow, second wheat, third fallow, fourth barley"'.

Each crop had to be tended. Often charlock, a weed, grew through the wheat. It was controlled by the scything of its flower which grew above the height of the crop. Removing thistles by hand from the field was another laborious job. Wild onion was also a menace to the farmer because it changed the aroma of the grain. One remedy was to deeply plough the field after harvest and keep the infected grain separated lest to taint the flavour of the remainder and affect the selling price.

Work on the farm was generally a combination of manual labour in teams, the horse and plough and, later, a hired steam driven threshing machine. This was a service in its own right. In census returns we find 'threshing machine proprietor' as an occupation. The team would arrive on the farm by 5.30am so that a fire could be lit in the steam engine in readiness for a 7.00am start. Belts from the steam engine operated the machine. The sheaves were loaded into the top of the contraption which separated the grain. The corn came out of one end and the chaff and dust from the middle. A water cart was always kept nearby to ensure that there was enough steam for the operation.

Steam power was introduced on farms during the middle of the nineteenth century: a Tiptree farmer, I. J. Mechi, was a leading advocate.

Harvest was the culmination of the working year. A man was appointed 'Lord of the Harvest' to negotiate with the farmer the wage for getting in the crops. He acted as supervisor, determining the pace of reaping. H. H. Abbott (1925) penned lines in 'An Essex Harvest':

"And Gaymer tells of harvests that he's known
At Castle Hedingham when he was boy -
How that the harvest had a chosen lord,
Who used to draw the 'lowance of the ale,
And portion out the work amongst the men,
And fine all those that broke the harvest-laws;
How the last load was decked out with green boughs,
And how when harvest-time was done, the men
Were given largesse-money for their work"⁸.

It was cause for celebration when the last of the harvest was safely gathered in. In some parts of Essex a green bough was hoisted onto the last wagon to symbolise the end of the harvest. Gleaning, the practice which allowed people to search the fields for uncollected grain etc was followed by Harvest Thanksgiving at church and the horkey or harvest-home, a feast with meat sometimes provided by the farmer, ale in large quantity and communal singing. Such events, as held at Great Waltham on 20th September 1883 are recorded in Edward Knights' book, 'Essex Folk' (1935).

By the turn of the century gleaning and harvest suppers wets "190 fast dying customs" but survived in the Stambourne and Finchingfield area in the north of the county. Perhaps the semoteness from the railway was one reason why some communities were Sess progressive.

Abbott's poem mentions a locai dialect word, largess. This was a tip given to workers' after the harvest so that it might be spent on celebrations at the local public house. Revd. Andrew Clark (Great Leighs) wrote in his diary on 18 September 1915, "damage to me 2s.6d."¹⁰. Other words in common parlance were beaver, being a ploughman's lunch taken about 11 o'clock (elsewhere known as elevenses) and fours, a dinner taken at that time. S J Bensusan (1943) wrote, "The Great War (as we learned to call it) killed the Essex dialect, the young men forgot and the old men died"¹¹. Revd. Clark noted on 18 September 1917, "The man, - Parish, asked for 'a harvest thanksgiving'" 2 not largesse.

The weather played a major part in deciding when to harvest crops. Rain just before or during harvest time could affect the yield tremendously. In 1903 there was a downpour which lasted for forty-eight hours causing extensive flooding and ruined crops. Bad weather in 1879 meant that harvest in West Hanningfield was not completed until October. "The wheat and barley in many cases yielded only three sacks to the acre"¹³. This was 12 bushels, well under half the amount for an average year.

Cutting barley at the optimum time commanded a good price from the maltster. But if overnight rain fell on cut but un-ricked barley, the crop would quickly be ruined. "A good barley sample is some sort of proof of how successfully the farmer has been even to outwit the weather, and he is justly proud of his accomplishment"¹⁴.