Plough, Pasture & Parish

From the Chelmsford Chronicle 4th September 1846

STANFORD RIVERS, NEAR ONGAR

CAPITAL FARMING STOCK
AT THE DOES FARM

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION
By Messrs Colchester and Son

On Saturday, the 19th day of September, 1846 at Eleven o’Clock

The entire FARMING STOCK of Mr. James Stallibrass, who quits the Farm, and will comprise

4 capital Cart mares, stinted to Wilson’s horse,
8 beautiful Durham Cows, very superior stock and well in Calf to a Durham Bull;
10 Durham Heifer Calves,
5 ditto Steers,
24 Swine.
Ploughs, harrows rolls, carts harness, and every requisite for the occupation, as expressed in Catalogues.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) has reported a steep decline in sparrow populations within the UK over the last thirty-five years. Other wildlife and environmental groups and organisations agree the current status of the sparrow raises increasing alarm. Both the House Sparrow and the Tree Sparrow have declined over this period. Much research and many conservation methods have been applied in seeking to reverse this trend.

Alas, sad to report, the parishes of Stanford Rivers and Greensted played a leading role in the organised reduction of sparrow numbers locally. The blame could be placed at the door of the Rat and Sparrow Club, the rules of which are recorded below. The evidence for the club is just one typewritten sheet of paper listing the Committee together with the rules. There is no evidence that has come to light to suggest that the club was ever active, but the intent is quite clear.

The names of the Committee Members, headed by the Chairman, suggest that several recognisable families who farmed within the parish are the “founders”. The date of the club is not stated but it is thought that it operated sometime in the 1940s. Little concern for the sparrow and its population is implied - in fact there is no concern shown for the sparrow whatsoever! Perhaps the vendetta against the rat is more easily understood.

STANFORD RIVERS, GREENSTED & DISTRICT

RAT & SPARROW CLUB

Chairman . . . . . . Mr. G. Wilson

Committee; Messrs. W. Hinman, J. H. Millbank, G. T. Pledge,
B. Muglestone

Hon. Secretary & Treasurer . . . . Mr. W. Powell, Jnr.

RULES

All rats and sparrows must be caught in above districts and members are asked to take steps to see that this is carried out.

The following are the rates at which the Club will pay members for sparrows and rats handed in:
Sparrow heads 2s. per hundred to be paid at end of season (October 1st.).
Over half-grown rat tail counts 5 sparrow heads,
Under half-grown 1 rat tail = 1 sparrow’s head,
Two sparrows eggs or two fledglings = 1 sparrow head.

All heads and tails to be taken to the nearest member of the above Committee when a receipt will be given.

Membership fee 2s. 6p., payable to the Secretary.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
N.B. It is hoped, if possible, to give prizes at the end of the season.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The membership fee then was 12½ p. in decimal currency - probably equivalent to about £5 today. The payment for one hundred sparrow heads would have been about £4 today. The equivalence of two eggs or two fledglings to one sparrow implies barbarity that would be quite unacceptable today within the standards associated with the British bird watcher. Clearly any member had to work for any return, paid in arrears incidentally. There is no clear definition of a half-grown rat but presumably there was an understanding on the length of a tail as guidance. Twenty full-grown rats tails for four pounds seems hard won, and a member would not yet have covered his subscription at this rate.

Sparrow populations of the era must have been very much larger than they were in 1975, and considerably more so than today. Both the sparrow and the rat must have been regarded significant pests in order to generate such a response. Was such a club the result of a reaction to food rationing and the need to preserve food stocks in “austerity Britain” following the Second World War? Is there any other reference to the club? Or was the club just an excuse for a good evening’s meal and a glass of something?

The local Rat and Sparrow Club was one part of a national movement to reduce pest levels. Clubs with similar aims (and similar bounties, although Stanford Rivers and Greensted did not appear to be the most generous) appeared over England. A search through Internet references identifies, for example; Rickling (Essex), Wadhurst (Kent) and “The Bowl Inn” at Hastingleigh (Kent) as being the home of other such clubs.

Part One: A General Introduction

Preface

Like many people, I descend from a family of agricultural labourers. I wondered what life was like for my ancestors and began to read the few books available on the subject and original documents held at the Essex Record Office. I considered the general context of farming in nineteenth and early twentieth century Essex (taking 1840 to 1920 as the period of study) and how it affected the lives of the agricultural labour - the ordinary family - in terms of health, housing etc .. This is a series of extracts from a 44 page book that I have written.

Introduction

It is easy to assume that life changed very little during the Victorian and Edwardian era. Villages were largely self-sufficient. In most country parishes there was a network of trades built up to serve the farmer and farm labourer: the butcher, baker, wheelwright, blacksmith as well as the doctor (for those who could afford treatment), and publican (where men might spend what little leisure time they had). The talk around villages was about the weather, crops and prices. It was an era of oil lamps, large families, wash-days and home baking from meagre resources. There was no running water and the privy was up the garden.

The horse and plough was a common sight with groups of labourers working in the fields. The countryside, unlike today, must have been a busy place. The labourer supplied his own tools for the job. It took a man one day to plough an acre of land with a horse. By dusk he had walked eleven miles.

To suggest that the work was unskilled performed by ignorant and simple people could not be more untrue. Great skill was necessary, for example, in the use of the scythe and, with a team of horses, ploughing a straight furrow.

This was a very different age to our own, but still one of great change.

Farming from 1840 to 1920 - A brief chronological history

Throughout the era, and indeed probably in every age down to 1945, those who lived in country parishes were engaged directly or indirectly in the 'agricultural industry'. Lives revolved around tending animals or the planting, growing and reaping of crops.

To understand rural life at the beginning of the Victorian era we need to sketch the economic situation in Britain. In 1840 the lives of many were affected by the Corn Laws. During the Napoleonic War, England was effectively blockaded and became reliant on producing its own food. Britain was on the verge of famine by 1812. The price of wheat rose steeply. There followed two good harvests in 1814 and 1815 and, as hostilities ceased, food imports resumed. The price of wheat halved between 1813 and January 1815 which threatened the livelihoods of farmers. Parliament passed the Corn Laws to keep the price of wheat artificially high by banning grain imports until the price of wheat rose above £4 per quarter. It was in effect a self-imposed blockade on foreign grain.

While the Corn Laws helped ensure employment for the agricultural labourer, it also affected the price of a loaf of bread, a basic foodstuff. There were many protests but the ordinary working man had no say because he had no voting rights. A working class movement in the late 1830s (Chartism) failed to make any impact. It was not until 1846 that the Government were forced to repeal the Laws because of the Irish Potato Famine.

William White (1848) described the soil and produce of Essex as having "Every species of loam, from the mildest to the most stubborn ... The county is on the whole fertile, and possesses some particularly fine land. The greater part is well enclosed, and rendered highly productive by the skilful management of agriculturalists. The farmers of Essex are reckoned among the best in the kingdom, and many of them hold farms in different parishes. ... Besides the usual crops of wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, potatoes &c., a considerable quantity of rape seed is grown, and also mustard, rye-grass, trefoil, and all sorts of garden seeds and vegetables". Today farmers will still testify that the Rodings "strong wet loam" grows the best wheat in the whole of East Anglia. Miller Christy (1887) wrote, "their soil is a heavy clay, good for wheat-growing, and offering difficulties to horseman well recognised by those who ride to hounds"⁴. Thomas Wright (1836) noted that without drainage and good management the land "yields very little"³. In this respect, Essex farmers were innovative and ahead of their time.

Around Chelmsford was "very good turnip land" and between the Hanningfields and Waltham Abbey there was "every sort of soil to be met with". Growing peas was also common around the Chelmsford area, as was market gardening.

White records that the Epping area was "famous" for its cream from cattle, and pigs were fattened for the London markets. Livestock fairs existed until the end of the nineteenth century. Two of the most well-known locally were at Ingatestone (on 15 December) and at Bush Fair, Harlow. In 1880, David Smith's grandfather, who farmed at Liok House, West Hanningfield, "went to Ingatestone Fair and, after baving bis pocket picked, bought twelve bullocks",

The proximity of the county to London helped the county's fortune. The coming of the railways, locally to Brentwood in 1839. Chelmsford in 1840, then via another route to Ongar in 1865, had a major impact on the nation's prosperity. It was "the most stupendous social tevolution that has occurred in Engiand at any time"". Markets opened up because goods could be moved with relative ease. By the end of the century there were very few parishes in Essex more than ten miles from a railway station.

Wheat was an important crop in Essex, evidenced by rent levels levied to farmers which changed according to the price of the commodity in the local market. After poor harvests the tithe (payment to the church) was sometimes reduced; for example, in 1835 at Patch Park, Stapleford Tawney.

Growing industrialisation abroad meant that by 1875 England was being inundated by cheap grain from overseas, mainly America. There were also a series of bad harvests, especially in 1878 and 1879. The Government chose not to place a tariff on imports. Consequently there began an agricultural depression.

Lord Ernle wrote that. "Land deteriorated in condition. The counties which suffered most were the corn-growing districts, in which high farming had won its most signal triumphs. On the heavy clays of Essex, for example, thousands of acres which had formerly yielded great crops and had paid high rents, had passed out of cultivation into ranches of cattle or temporary sheep-runs"". These heavy clay soils required 'three horses' to plough and were therefore more expensive to cultivate.

Land to the east of the London to Colchester railway was badly affected. "Many farmers were unable to bear this continued loss, farms began to stand empty ... which, in many cases, had been farmed by the same family for hundreds of years" ⁹. Farms went out of business and work in rural parishes dwindled. Nationally a third of the labouring population left the land in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The price of wheat was especially low in 1894 and 1895 but showed signs of improvement in 1897. It was not until 1907 that the price rose above 30 shillings (£1.50) per quarter but by then the acreage farmed had declined. In Essex in 1904 there was a reduction of over 21,000 acres of wheat (20.9%) against the previous year.

As our era drew towards a close it was observed, "Dairy farming is the only kind that is really profitable, and yet Essex is far more suited climatically for wheat-growing, being sunny and dry in the summer - too dry for the best pasture"¹¹.

The Essex Chronicle took a more upbeat view. "If anybody has lingering in his mind the word 'derelict' in connection with the county of Essex, he would well run though the returns just received for produce of crops in Great Britain issued by the Board of Agriculture"¹². This is summarised in the table below. Comparative figures for 1848 are given, showing that the yield in wheat per acre had dramatically increased.

aaaet markets for

In Edwardian Essex, the county had one of the strongest markets for selling corn. In Tindal Square, Chelmsford, was the Corn Exchange, "a large, handsome, glass-roofed building, 100ft. by 45, with offices &c., ranged round it, erected by a company in 1856, at a cost of £10,000. The busy scene to be witnessed in it on Friday afternoons resembles the more widely known one at Mark Lane. The building is also largely used for theatrical performances, chrysanthemum and poultry shows and other entertainments"¹⁵. There was also a sizeable market for livestock, "one of the best in the Eastem counties"¹⁶, which moved from the High Street in 1879 to occupy several acres behind the Corn Exchange. The building was demolished in the late 1960s to make way for a shopping precinct.

Reginald Beckett (1901) observed that, "There is no busier place in the world than Chelmsford on a market-day. Here the broad-shouldered husbandmen, clad in tweed and homespun, whom you may have met on their lonely farmsteads or in the warm parlours of village inns, bring samples of their produce, and in a babel of homely speech determine for the rest of the world the price of its daily bread"¹⁷.

Chelmsford market in 1913 was the third largest in the country selling 106,831 quarters of wheat, after Norwich (123,859) and Cambridge (107,440).

The increased use of transport also had an effect of the rural economy towards the end of our period. Comn could be sent by lorry outside the village. The role of the miller diminished. In 1940 C Henry Warren wrote, "From being a friendly focus of village life, the wind-mill has dwindled to an 'ancient monument""¹⁸.

The outbreak of the First World War (1914) again raised the possibility of a food shortage. The Com Production Act 1917 set minimum wages for agricultural labourers (nationally 25s per week) and guaranteed a minimum price for wheat (60s per quarter) and oats (38s.6d). A survey was carried out, demanding that where production was deficient that this be remedied by the ploughing up of meadow land. Stringent state control lasted until 1922, when legislation was repealed.

But there was another landscape which changed forever. Many skilled agricultural labourers were called up to serve in the War. Some did not return.

A Map of The Farm Called Arnolds in The Parish of Stapelforth Abby & Lambourn in the County of Essex. Sampler dated circa 1790

Mr Harry Sworder, of Tawney Hall, Stapleford Tawney, where the soil is mixed with heavy clay subsoil, whose large farm I visited, complained much of labour troubles. He said that he could not get sufficient; that he had ten men and could do with ten more for a time, if he were able to find them. As it was, there was only one hand at work on a ten acre field of mangold. Four or five of his people had been on the place for an average of thirty years.

Ploughing was one of the most important jobs of the agricultural year, as it laid the foundation of a good harvest in the autumn seasons. It was a hard, slow job which relied on a good knowledge of the land that was being cultivated. Different areas of the country had their own types of plough which was better suited to the local terrain.

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.

Whilst carrying out some research on the internet I came across a picture of a sampler, entitled

‘A Map of The Farm Called Arnolds in The Parish of Stapelforth Abby & Lambourn in the County of Essex, being part of the estate of…’

There was no indication of who had made the sampler or a date when it was done, although it is estimated it was made circa 1760. The sampler shows each field and the acreage of each. The total acreage of the farm was 215 acres.

According to the Victoria County History, Arneways/Arnolds is a lesser manor of Lambourne. It probably took its name from Adam Arneway, who is said to have held land in Lambourne 'about the reign of Henry VI' under the Earl of Oxford, who held the neighbouring manor of Battles in Stapleford Abbots .

In 1525 Arneways was among the possessions of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton (Northants.) and was settled in that year to the uses of his will. He also owned the manor of Hunts (see below), and his property descended on his death in 1534 to his son and heir Sir William. In a list of owners drawn up about 1543-6 Anthony Browne is given under Arneways. By 1556, however, Arneways and Hunts had come to Robert Taverner, lord of the manors of Pryors (see below) and Lambourne-and-Abridge (see above) who died in that year. Arneways remained in the possession of Thomas, son of Robert Taverner, after Lambourne-and-Abridge had been sold, and descended on Thomas's death in 1610 to his son Robert. In 1625 Robert Taverner sold Arneways and Pryors to Robert Draper, merchant tailor of London. Taverner evidently remained tenant of the estate. Draper died in 1635 and was succeeded by his younger son William. At its fullest extent the Taverner estate probably comprised about 500 acres.

In 1641 William Draper of Oxford sold Arneways to Robert Broomfield of Stratford. The estate descended to John Broomfield, son of John, son of Robert, who in 1681 assigned the lease of Arneways 'heretofore in the occupation of Robert Taverner', to John Todd of Walthamstow. In 1687 this estate 'once in the occupation of Robert Taverner and afterwards of Lance Nash' was sold to John Todd. Todd is said to have given half the estate to William Church, who married his daughter; their daughter and heir married Peter Searle who sold Arneways to Thomas Scott (d. 1733) of Woolston in Chigwell (q.v.).

The estate passed to Thomas's son George Scott who was holding it in 1746. A map of the farm was drawn for George Scott in that year by Josiah Taylor. Arnolds then consisted of 215 acres in Lambourne, most of which lay opposite the farmhouse to the south of the main road.
A reference to the Victoria History says there is a photo of the map in the E.R.O., ref T/M 227, (now T/M 227/1). Look at it online and it's the same map! There are also two photos of the sampler (T/M 227/A and B) not online. They've dated it 1746-1801, when Sarah Sewell died.

George Scott still held the farm in 1771, but by 1782 it was owned by Edward Sewell. He was returned as the owner until 1788 when the farm belonged to Mrs. Sarah Sewell, probably his widow. After Mrs. Sewell's death about 1801 Arneways came to Samuel Sewell who still held it in 1841. In the latter year the farm consisted of 203 acres in Lambourne. It was occupied by Mrs. Kitty Collyer and Philip B. Collyer. The Collyer family had been tenants since 1788.
Arnolds Farm was advertised for sale in 1843. It was then stated to contain 203 acres freehold in Lambourne and a further 10 acres copyhold of the manor of Stapleford Abbots. It was bought by Samuel Crane, whose family continued to farm it until about 1916 when it was sold to Mr. Jacob Saward. In 1925 the farm was bought by Mr. A. Clarke, whose son, Mr. H. E. Clarke, eventually took over the farm.

Sadly (and mysteriously after several failed planning applications) it burned down c 1970.

The Josiah Taylor map has the 1746 owner's name filled in, and details of the house and farmyard. The embroiderer has added the alternative name for Ebridge/Aybridge, and all the decorative pictures.

The identity of the person who made this elaborate and precise depiction in embroidery of Arnolds Farm. It may have been worked as a sophisticated exercise during a young girl's education, combining needlework skills with a lesson in geography and rural economy.

The following article was written by Rob Brooks to accompany a walk that the group undertook in 2001. It is printed here for the first time. It is being spoken by James Miller of Repentance Farm who was our ‘guide’ on the walk.
‘My name is James Miller. I live in Repentance Farm, just outside the parish in Grinstead. I’m a tenant farmer. Now I understand that you are of the middling sort so maybe this walk will give you some feel of the Parish today. We are walking to Coleman’s Farm and down Mutton Row and back to this substantial church.
In the parish we continue to live through hard times. The Napoleonic Wars, now 25 years over, took so many of our young people from us that farm labour was in short supply; thus wages were good. Since then our wages and conditions have worsened. Around here summer wages in agriculture used to be about 12 shillings a week but over the last five years they have been near to 10 shillings. In the rest of Essex wages have been nearer to 8 shillings and that is not a living wage.
That and the labourers out of work! The new machinery that is being brought onto the farms for threshing, and the like, can do the work of many men. There are many now in Essex able to work who have no work to go to. Indeed about 7,000 labourers out of the 41,000 in Essex are without honest work.
It will be no surprise to you that there has been much unrest. There have been many instances of petty theft, of chickens and the like, just to feed one’s own children. Those who are caught are better fed in Springfield gaol than they would be in their sparse dwellings.
Some have taken it upon themselves to directly oppose the introduction of the new machines. Groups have refused to work. A year or so ago in Stapleford Tawney, Samuel Whitbread wrote a letter rallying the workers in the neighbouring parishes. Samuel demanded 15 shillings in summer and 14 shillings in winter in exchange for labour. This is all right if you are united locally, otherwise it is just cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Others have set fire to the machines. There have been many instances east of here. There is little chance of you being caught when you are with your friends and neighbours. If you are caught, you may be deported, but in the county we all remember the example made of James Ewen who was hanged for arson in Springfield on Christmas Eve of all days.
The Government brought in the New Poor Law. This has meant the end of the old Speenhamland system where the overseers of the poor in the parish supplemented the wage of the poor from the rates. Many farmers just paid less since they knew the lowest wages would be supplemented. The number of poor rose as a consequence. This new Act of Parliament introduced a new system based on care for the poor across unions of parishes. You may have seen the Ongar Union Workhouse, recently enlarged to hold 240 inmates.
Other workers have sought changes in the political system. The London Working Men’s Association recently set down a 6 point Charter. The Charter demands universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, annual Parliaments, payments of members, secret ballots and no property qualification of MP’s. Those who support this are called Chartists.
George Loveless is one of those behind the movement. You may remember that George was one of the Dorset labourers, now rightly returned to these shores. He now lives in New House Farm in Grinstead. George, of much bitter experience, has held Chartist meetings at the farm. Newspapers have reported that the Chartist Association in Grinstead recruited the local farm labourers ‘by the combined or alternate influence of persuasion and of terror.’ Terror? The terror is only caused by the inability of honest folk to care for their families.
Anyway it is going to be a long time before we see any progress here, and our wages will not increase in the next week.
Stanford Rivers in 1841.
The Tithe Commission has recently completed the tithe apportionment for this parish. This has given us our first large scale map and survey of the parish. There is much of interest in the maps and schedules. It is this map that we will use for our walk.
From the work of the commissioners, we know that the total acreage of the parish is nearly 4,387 acres. Sir Charles Cunliffe Smith, Baronet, is the major landowner, owning approximately 1,354 acres, all tenanted. Mr Capel Cure rents out 816 acres to tenants, but he also owns Ongar Park Wood adding a further 292 acres to his landholding. Thomas Wilson owns Stanford Hall Farm of 704 acres. These account for 72% of the parish acreage..
Hannah Andres and Maria King, widows of Stanford Hall, rent the whole of the farm at the hall. Tabrum Mosely and John Stallibrass farm 252 acres and 319 acres respectively, but there are a further 14 farms in the parish with an acreage of 100 to 160 acres, and a number of smallholdings. The farming is mixed.
The population of the parish from the recent census is 438 males and 393 females, with a further 46 males and 30 females living in the workhouse. There are 158 occupied houses in the parish, but a further 6 were inhabited at the time of the census.
James Miller, June 1841.

Agricultural implements increasingly were available by 1840. Thomas Wright (1836) claimed that the Essex spring plough made by Clarke of Billericay was the best and Cook's scarifying harrow "is an excellent implement". He adds, "My thrashing machine was made by Ball, of Norwich, which answers completely in thrashing all sorts of grain"¹. The threshing machine, an early example of mechanisation in farming, was invented in the late eighteenth century but was not in common usage for a century afterwards.

The separation of wheat from the chaff by beating the comn on the barn floor (otherwise called the threshing floor) was known as flaifing. The flail was referred to as a stick and a half because it was made in two parts. It was held by a piece of wood called a hand-staff, made of ash or hazel. The other half, the swingel, was made of heavier wood, either blackthorn or holly. These were loosely bound together with a leather strap. The beating was with even pressure in order to separate but not break the grain.

Winnowing, the blowing away of the chaff, was achieved by simply opening the barn doors and regulating the air flow. Later a wind dresser was used. This created a lot of dust.

Reginald Beckett, on his "pedestrian perambulations" at the turn of the twentieth century observed, "Looking one day into a barn in one of the Roding parishes, I noticed a still stranger survival - the operation of threshing with a flail. These things serve to show that this part of Essex, geographically near London though it be, is centuries behind and apart from it"².

The assignment of the lease of the Jericho Priory Farm estate, Blackmore, in 1872 referred to the vendor's obligation to leave "all hay, corn, and straw in ricks, bins or on the threshing floors"³.

The introduction of machinery threatened the existence of the agricultural labourer. In 1816 and the Swing Riots of 1830, many men resorted to machine breaking. This happened at Finchingfield, Great Bardfield, Sible Hedingham and other piaces in Essex. In 1843 Michael Challis of Hatfield Broad Oak was transported for setting alight a farm at Harlow.

Changes in technology meant changes in the landscape too Increasingly the traditional harn disappeared. Today many surviving examples have been converied into houses.

Oxen were still used in preference to the horse on some farms in 1840. These animals are recorded in the Domesday Book. Wright says that the horse is an "extravagant expense ... who eat up a very considerable produce of the farm; this has driven me back to oxen, which F used about twenty years ago". Ashley Cooper (1982) wrote that a farm "at Burlingham in Norfolk used oxen until 1905". This ilustrases that farming practice spanned a considerable period of time, even when newer 'technofogy' was available.

In another example, Reginald Beckett (1901) records a conversation with a labourer in Doddinghurst. "In a fieid hard by the church two men were sowing oats by hand, with the rhythmic swing of the body, out of shallow wooden baskets. One of them passing near the hedge stopped for a moment's chat. It was an oid-fashioned way of shattering the seed, he said, but needed a lot of learning. I remarked that it was at all events a scriptural custom. 'Yes, they didn't have machinery in them days'".

In 1902. the 'Davey Land Digger' was demonstrated with "splendid results" in Wickford, its place of manufacture. It was a steam digger attached to a six horse-power traction engine. "Only one man is employed, and the land is dug to a depth of ten inches, over a width of twelve feet, at a rate of three-quarters of an acre an hour. The action of the digger leaves the land quite ready for drilling the seed"⁷.

Earlier Mr T C Darby of Pleshey had invented the 'Darby Digger', "which during the last year of two has done excellent work as a cultivator of the soil in many parts of the county. One at least of these curious-looking implements may usually be seen at work on Mr Darby's own farm, and its inventor is always pleased to show it to visitors. Mr Darby is now the owner of 5 of these machines, which are chiefly let out to his neighbouring farmers. It is claimed for the Digger, which took the Highest Prize Medal at the Royal Agricultural Society's Meeting at Carlisle in 1880, that it performs 'spade husbandry and steam power', and at one-seventh of the cost"".

A traction engine was first used in 1888 on Link Farm, West Hanningfield. The binder - a machine which cut and bound corn - arrived on the farm in 1898 but could not be used during the wet harvest of 1902: "This meant the revival of the old-time reaping harvests, and the old hands came back into their own again"". The petrol-driven tractor made its first appearance around 1900. The combine harvester was not generally available until during the Second World War although an early one was first used in Suffolk in 1936. Even so, change was slow: horses were used well into the 1950s and not all farmers used combine harvesters until the 1970s. Threshing machines remained in use well after 1945. The job was known as "barn work".

In many respects our ancestors would have recognised farming practice well into the third quarter of the twentieth century. But by then farming had changed significantly from the employment of a large number of labourers to a solitary occupation. A combine harvester can do the same job in thirty to forty minutes that would have otherwise taken a threshing team of ten in a day¹⁰.

From The Times June 6, 1848

Stanford Rivers, Essex - Compact Frechold Estate with a Substantial brick built Residence, Offices, Garden, Farm House and Buildings, and 43 acres of excellent Meadow Land.

MESSRS HOGGARTS, NORTON and OAKLEY have received instructions to offer for SALE at the Auction Mart. on THIS DAY, June 6, at 12, in one lot, by direction of the .... in Trust, BLAKES FARM, a valuable Freehold Estate, delightfully situated at Toothill, in the parish of Stanford Rivers, near Ongar, about eight miles from Brentwood, and five from Epping, in a fine part of the county of Essex. It comprises a substantial brick-built residence, containing five bed chambers, dining room, parlour, attached and detached offices, stabling and chaise house, large productive garden, and an enclosure of fine old meadow land; also several enclosures of most productive meadow land, with good farm house, farm-yard, cattle sheds, and all useful agricultural buildings, five cottages with large gardens, the whole containing 43a.1r.39p. May be viewed and particulars had of Mr Lewis, land agent, Waterend, Ongar; of G. Bower, Esq., solicitor, Tokenhouse Yard; Henry Wright, Esq, solicitor, Knutsford, Cheshire; at the White Hart, Brentwood; at the Mart; and of Messrs Hoggarts, Norton and Oakley, Darland, Chatham and 62 Old Broad Street, Royal Exchange.