Old farming men.

CharcoalWally · Dec 23, 2017

shearerlad said:
Heard someone called a guy like that a Muscle Mary.

Muscle Mary's bulge all over , cover themselves in fake tan , spend far too much time looking at themselves in the mirror , have a trendy haircut and wear their clothes at least 1 size too tight , but would be absolutely useless spending a day shearing , marking or fencing.

They're ornaments. Just to be looked at. Don't ask the poor dears to actually do anything.

JWL · Dec 23, 2017

Bruce Almighty said:
@JWL was the farmer with the thrashing straw at Myton, Warwick trying to remember his name ? John Gardner ?

Also I was thinking Hemming's Mill at Barford same as @Cab-over Pete

Right on both accounts, I think it was 1976 when we had gales in the autumn when the end of the Dutch Barn blew off and took the upstairs corner of his house out!
The name of Buckingham does stir a distant memory but not enough to be sure

glasshouse · Dec 23, 2017

Kidds said:
I've used one but never knew a proper name for it, I think it was a piece of broken fork handle rather than a special made thing.
You lot must think I am proper old, I'm not, I have just been living and working in a time warp I think. Acton Scott is where we get new stuff from
We bagged all our grain and loaded it using the Lister into the wagons that came to collect it. Someone mentioned previously how the driver cut the strings as the bags went up, well a proper bag knot and you can twizzle the string off quicker than cutting it. I can still tie that knot and still use it when tying bags.
Put the short end poking out between your ring and little finger, wrap it round once and over your two middle fingers, around again and catch it with your two middle fingers and pull up through and tighten.
To undo it just hold one of the ends and unwind it.

A millers knot

glasshouse · Dec 23, 2017

CharcoalWally said:
That's the difference between ornamental muscle and working muscle.

The big iron pumper at the rugby club challenged me to an arm wrestle 25yr ago.
He fancied himself to play for scotland, he might have got a b cap.
I nearly had him down when he jumped up and accused me of cheating. Total Fanny.

Bruce Almighty · Dec 24, 2017

Cab-over Pete said:
Was the feed merchant near Warwick Hemmings Feeds at Barford, near The Joseph Arch pub?

I think I just about remember going there with Dad.

Did an old boy named John Buckingham, an owner driver haulier used to haul for them? John used to deliver fertiliser to my Dad with a blue Bedford TK and drag. It had fold flat sides and once unloaded with fert, two 50kg bags at a time, John would shovel grain into our auger to load back out. I would “help” but I was only a kid. This was while Dad was away from home driving for Contractamix on a mill and mix lorry.

John Buckingham always wore his shirt open to the waist with a string vest showing. He had a leg amputated but still drove and unloaded bags of fert. I think he had to give in when he lost his other leg.
His son now drives for R Adams and Sons on the grain.

Did John Buckingham keep a few pigs & live Loxley way ?
I thought he also drove a milk tanker for Blakes ?

Warp Land Farmer · Dec 24, 2017

sawdust said:
Need a fecking good aim and swing

I've done the very same to get Leeks out from frozen ridged up rows many times, picks and pry bars - your hands got really cold tho when you washed and dressed the Leeks after got back to the shed

Warp Land Farmer · Dec 24, 2017

glasshouse said:
They never lifted 16 stone sacks, a sack lifter raised them , they just carried them

No mechanical sack lifter at this farm, also there was a joke to put a 4 stone weight in the bottom of the bag as well

Cab-over Pete · Dec 24, 2017

Bruce Almighty said:
Did John Buckingham keep a few pigs & live Loxley way ?
I thought he also drove a milk tanker for Blakes ?

Not sure about that, we didn’t know him that well, but my uncle Jimmy drove fir Blake’s so I’ll ask him.

You’re right about Robin, he does love to tell and old tale or two. His family used to farm at Berkswell, as did mine, so I can picture some of the places he talks so fondly of. My mother has a Grandfather Clock that Dad bought from Bill Hursts Farm sale.

Robin is a really lovely, easy going chap. I turned up this last autumn to spread some lime and it was a bit windy up the top at Marraway. Tim was there hedge cutting, he rang Robin to see if it was alright to carry on. I forget the actual reply but it was something along the lines of next time I’m spreading at the neighbours come on a breezy day and send some dust back!

JWL · Dec 24, 2017

@Bruce Almighty he might well have done. Talking of TK's, do you remember the "fleet" of tractor unit TK's Pinkney's used to collect straw for their pigs with the Lister elevators bolted to the front of the cabs? No bale sledges, just used to run up the rows when the fields were baled.
I can remember the Triple Does ploughing in-between Loxley and Stratford closer to Toddington just up from where the NFU headquarters are now.

glasshouse · Dec 24, 2017

Th

Warp Land Farmer said:
No mechanical sack lifter at this farm, also there was a joke to put a 4 stone weight in the bottom of the bag as well

The sack lifter could be mechanical or manual. Two men with a stick did just as well, the point is the carriers of 18 stone bags were not expected to lift them as well.

nick... · Dec 24, 2017

Old boy now deceased not far from me was reknown for getting 2x56lb weights in each hand and clapping them above his head.id imagine @carbonfibre farmer will know who im on about
Nick...

Bruce Almighty · Dec 24, 2017

JWL said:
@Bruce Almighty he might well have done. Talking of TK's, do you remember the "fleet" of tractor unit TK's Pinkney's used to collect straw for their pigs with the Lister elevators bolted to the front of the cabs? No bale sledges, just used to run up the rows when the fields were baled.
I can remember the Triple Does ploughing in-between Loxley and Stratford closer to Toddington just up from where the NFU headquarters are now.

Yes they regularly baled the straw at Grove Park, next door

hang-on · Dec 24, 2017

ste said:
Off topic slightly, but we had this discussion at work the other night. We have a couple of lads who are gym freaks, think they can lift anything. They probably can in a straight up and down, but get them to hold something while it’s fixed and they just can’t manage more than about 10 seconds, also need several rests through the shift.

Where as a few of us are on the larger and more unfit side but can plod on through the shift,2 of us are from farming backgrounds. We have been to the gym the odd time and they can lift more but not over a long period

Funny same thing here, scruffy farm boy here and two gym posers on the Maintenance team and them boys might be able to lift a load straight up and down they can’t beat me in getting motors wriggled into tight spots or back out! Lol

Ramrod · Dec 24, 2017

The "sack lifter" was/is a winding barrow, if alone you used the winding barrow if accompanied we used a hicking stick.

A hicking stick was usually any length of wood about 3' long and thick enough to lift the sack, 12st corn 16st peas and tied with a 'corn tiers knot'

If enough time, two men would carry sack to heap and place the second tier, on the top of the bottom one that had been wheeled or dragged into place.

To place the next tier, two men (carrier and hicking partner) used the hicking stick to pick up the sack, then swing sack back and in one movement forward and over so as to land on the carrier's back/shoulder.

The carrier then placed on heap, any subsequent tier's, same procedure but using strong step.

If being stored in the granary, then the winding/hicking was done down stairs then the sack, sometimes 16st was carried up steps to be placed on heap.

If riddling potatoes sack was 8st usually stitched, when loading all men hicked and carried (sometimes over a plank across a ditch) to lorry or cart if going by train,

where driver lifted from carrier's shoulders and placed on lorry.

First job for me, leading a horse and cart while 'the men' spread muck (FYM) with muck forks.

Last job being 'led' by a self steering tractor.

Cab-over Pete · Dec 24, 2017

JWL said:
@Bruce Almighty he might well have done. Talking of TK's, do you remember the "fleet" of tractor unit TK's Pinkney's used to collect straw for their pigs with the Lister elevators bolted to the front of the cabs? No bale sledges, just used to run up the rows when the fields were baled.
I can remember the Triple Does ploughing in-between Loxley and Stratford closer to Toddington just up from where the NFU headquarters are now.

Bill Pinkneys farms were just a few miles from here, some sold off now. You can still see what a fantastic farming set up it must have been. When I was a kid just about every working man for miles did some work for him at some time.

I remember the lorries too. Bales went straight up and over the cab and then landed on the trailer where they were walked back and stacked, all on the move.

Legend has it Mr Pinkney bought a fleet of new New Holland conventional balers every summer, maybe 4-5, from Murleys in Warwick.

One year there was a huge fire at Table Oak Farm. All the straw bales were stacked in lofts over the top of the pig pens, tens of thousands of them. The fire kept spreading over the top of the pigs and I remember being told the poor things were being roasted alive. The chap telling us said they just ran along the pens opening the doors to let them out, thousands of pigs running around madly. He said men walked about with bits of timber bashing some of them on the head if their burns were really bad. He had tears in his eyes as he told us.

@Bruce Almighty mentioned John Gardner and @JWL you mentioned Loxley, Mr Gardner used to farm near the Ford foundry at Leamington Spa, then he moved to a farm near Loxley. (Coincidentally Blake’s haulage were at Loxley too). I now spread lime at that farm for Mr Gardner’s family who now farm the land.

It’s all gone now but the first time I went there I remember seeing dozens of old tractors, trucks, trailers and cars among the old sheds and and in the brambles. I seem to remember being told Mr Gardner had a lot of input into developing the Fordson Major, so maybe that’s something to do with the Triple D ploughing at Loxley.

It’s all farmed by family from Lighthorne now, really nice people, a pleasure to work for.

Gulli · Dec 24, 2017

This is a great thread

We were chatting the other night about an old family uncle who died when I was very young. From diabetes brought on by drinking 25 cups of tea a day with 5 spoons of sugar in each cup

He used to dig trees out by the roots instead of felling them and could knock people off the top of a trailer load of hay bales with a bale from the ground. Could do this well into his 60s.
New every spring on the farm and how to get them running. Never had electric in his house but had a fridge to keep his milk in!
Wish i could have met him. My granny recorded a few conversations she had with him about nothing in particular

Kildare · Dec 24, 2017

Old lad near here was employed to spread the silage on the pit with a fork when it was buckraked up.
contractor did not turn up one day and there was two loads tipped in the yard from the night before.
When contractor came back after rain or repairs the old lady had the two loads put on the pit with only a fork

Martinamachine · Dec 24, 2017

Started reading the thread and some great tails we still have a cow shed with the troughs water bowls and a few chains don’t use them just bed it all down for the Dexter’s

Whitewalker · Dec 24, 2017

Cab-over Pete said:
Bill Pinkneys farms were just a few miles from here, some sold off now. You can still see what a fantastic farming set up it must have been. When I was a kid just about every working man for miles did some work for him at some time.

I remember the lorries too. Bales went straight up and over the cab and then landed on the trailer where they were walked back and stacked, all on the move.

Legend has it Mr Pinkney bought a fleet of new New Holland conventional balers every summer, maybe 4-5, from Murleys in Warwick.

One year there was a huge fire at Table Oak Farm. All the straw bales were stacked in lofts over the top of the pig pens, tens of thousands of them. The fire kept spreading over the top of the pigs and I remember being told the poor things were being roasted alive. The chap telling us said they just ran along the pens opening the doors to let them out, thousands of pigs running around madly. He said men walked about with bits of timber bashing some of them on the head if their burns were really bad. He had tears in his eyes as he told us.

@Bruce Almighty mentioned John Gardner and @JWL you mentioned Loxley, Mr Gardner used to farm near the Ford foundry at Leamington Spa, then he moved to a farm near Loxley. (Coincidentally Blake’s haulage were at Loxley too). I now spread lime at that farm for Mr Gardner’s family who now farm the land.

It’s all gone now but the first time I went there I remember seeing dozens of old tractors, trucks, trailers and cars among the old sheds and and in the brambles. I seem to remember being told Mr Gardner had a lot of input into developing the Fordson Major, so maybe that’s something to do with the Triple D ploughing at Loxley.

It’s all farmed by family from Lighthorne now, really nice people, a pleasure to work for.

Are they any photos of these lorries ? Fascinating stories.

joe soapy · Dec 24, 2017

Kevtherev said:
Always remember grandfather talking about thrashing day and what a community day it was.
Bloke feeding the drum was the same one every time as it was a job you had to get right he said.
He also told me about an old bloke that used to be around the area and his job was to get the steam engines lit and steam up early in the morning.
He travelled miles following the thrashing crew and either slept in haylofts or bings in cowsheds.
His attire was a hessian over his shoulders held by a six inch nail and his wages were food mostly.
He must of been a hard fellow.

Steam, i remember Dad was often reminding us that they put in the pump, reservoirs and asbestos pipe work for the thrasher man, . the same year it was done, he turned up with a tractor.!!
Local ledgend has it that the thrashing engine was driven by a 14 year old during the war and that a special act of parlement was passed to allow him to do it.
They would come with an MM pulling the thrasher and stationery baler. Took a fair team to keep the job going, 2 pitching sheaves, 1 feeding the drum, 1 or 2 bagging off,
4 carting bags away to the barn, 1 working the baler, 2 on the straw rick stacking the bales and 2 keeping everybody fed and watered.. before the tractor, there would also be somebody
hauling coal and water to feed the engine.
Brings flooding back memories of ankles scratched by the stubble, barley aisles getting everywhere and horse flies galore and being told off for riding on the shafts

Old farming men.

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