Hilary's Diaries - Hilary Townsend President of Stalbridge History Society
November 2020 Hilary Townsend
Writing about farming in my last two diaries has made me think about how much everything to do with farming has changed in my lifetime. I remember an old farmer in the 1930s looking at a grass meadow and remarking `He do need a chain har`.
Naturally, being an inquisitive child, I wanted to know what that meant and learned that a chain Harrow was a heavy contraption of iron links. It was horse drawn across a field to level it out and get rid of humps and bumps so that the mower could get through unhindered in due course. Did our chain harrows get sent off to make munitions during the war I wonder? 
Henry Gawler Harrowing a plough field early 1900's (Stalbridge Archive Society)
When the hay was ready to be carried it was brought by wagon to the rickyard where a new hay rick, needing tremendous skill, had been set up . As the rick grew, a powered elevator was set up to take the hay up on to the rick, to be trodden carefully around to the edges. Responsible child labour was considered useful for this; eventually mine was.
Haymaking late 1800's (Stalbridge Archive Society)
Haymaking was extremely thirsty work and my mother would send gallons of tea and her haymaking cake down to the hay fields every day. I still have the recipe for this, a moist fruitcake. Tea was served in stout white enamel mugs with vividly coloured handles and I shall never forget my astonishment when in the 1960s I was in London and went to Carnaby Street. There, right in the middle of all the fashionable new tat, I saw copies of our enamel milk mugs proudly displayed as the latest thing for the Swinging Sixties.
Bagber Farmers Haymaking late 1800's (Stalbridge Archive Society)
Now it is too easy for people like me to get carried away by nostalgia. I don’t sentimentalise about the good old days, I try to take a balanced view. All the same, the rich scent of dry hay, flower rich and nourishing, all around us, penetrating everywhere on a warm summer evening, had a magic of its own. Yes I know things had to change. Fields had to get bigger to accommodate the new machinery which in turn reduced the exhausting labour of the old ways. All the same, whenever I see a row of huge, shiny, black balls of plastic nowadays in the middle of a silage field after it has been cut. I don’t take a deep breath, and for I know the only scent there will be of black plastic.
What will the future be in farming around Stalbridge I wonder? 
Probably not drinking Tea.. (Somerset Rural Life Museum)
© Hilary Townsend
November 2020 |
Discover Dorset – Blackmore Vale Dovecote Press 2004
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Blackmore Vale Childhood Dovecote Press 2006
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One Woman’s Fight for Architectural Heritage 2012
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Stalbridge to Siberia and other places - Silk Hay Books 2018
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Titles by Hilary Townsend
Hilary, from a family of yeoman farmers, grew up in Dorset. As a personnel manager in industry, and later lecturer in management subjects, she wrote magazine and newspaper features for UK and North American markets.
Hilary, from a family of yeoman farmers, grew up in Dorset. As a personnel manager in industry, and later lecturer in management subjects, she wrote magazine and newspaper features for UK and North American markets.
