Anton Coaker: Knottie

[JP1]

I’ve got a lovely little snippet of minutiae for you this week. It places me quite neatly, and if you ‘get it’, it’ll place you as well. I slipped off with my lorry last week to pick up a bit of timber a pal had cut for me- we didn’t have the right logs for this order, so I phoned a friend. He’s got a very capable son who does a lot of the work in the mill now, and twas the son who received me, and helped rope my load on. And here’s the thing. Although he’d be very much of the ratchet strap generation, he was quite at home roping down one side of my truck as I did the other, throwing a coil between us as we went. To be completely candid, I wouldn’t say his hitches were the neatest I’ve seen –and it is a matter of lore that no 2 men will tie a wagoner’s hitch the same, or even give it the same name- but they were functional. If you’re all adrift already, I should explain that while my rope craft is very poor, and I know very few knots –I live too far from the sea, so don’t do the nautical thing- this particular knot is the universal one to use when tying a load onto a lorry, bale trailer, or horse drawn cart. It can be tightened down murder tight, especially when doubled up, but can simply be flicked apart when you want to unload. Or at least, it was universal until the dawn of the ratchet strap era, when suddenly it became obsolete. It’s now mostly a knack amongst us oldies, dating from carting little bales and the like decades ago, which we can still fasten with eyes closed.

And although it was ubiquitous just 20 years ago, many a capable lad will never learn this hitch nowadays. So I was both curious and strangely pleased to see this youngster quite at home using a rope. He’s obviously had the right upbringing. And I should say my 16 year old John can tie a very respectable hitch, which we both regard as a skill a man should have. I do keep a couple of straps in the truck but I’m still just as happy throwing a rope over loads…they are so quick, and cheap, by comparison.

There are confusing reports on whether you should use ropes to secure a load now, with officials only being quite clear, definite and adamant that you shouldn’t fasten a ratchet strap to a rope hook, which hardly resolves the matter. So for the avoidance of doubt, this column is referring only to historic load securing, on farm tracks, and is fictional anyway….clear?



As it goes, one of our more useful part-time helpmates is somewhat embarrassed because, as he’s quietly admitted, he struggles when faced with a coil of rope instead of a strap. He’s a very adept young man, who’ll turn his hand to most things, so this is something of an issue. I’ve shown him as well as I’m able, and he is getting to grips with it now…along with a suitable amount of leg pulling. He knows full well that it’s a perceived failing, but the penny really dropped for me the other day when I realised his real problem was that his Dad might find out. I know the Father well, and the old boy would be mortified to know, and stump off shaking his head, worrying he’d failed in his guiding role. They’re friends, so I’m going to keep ‘junior’ at it until he gets it right.



I suppose a parallel is the ability to build a load of small bales fit to travel. I used to cart a lot as a youth, and after some embarrassing moments of my own, got reasonably competent. Tight bales of golden straw were one thing, squidgy bales of meadow hay another altogether. ‘Cut edges’ to the outside, watch your corners, and picture the whole all the while. I’d handle 10,000 or so in a season, and I noticed that when I ventured off the moors, in search of a bit of extra fodder, or that golden barley straw, building a load was a skill which sometimes drew favourable comment from my betters. Now though, the straw bales are all huge great blocks, and roping something of an irrelevant art, almost gone. I still like to see it though.


About the author

Originally published in The Western Morning News, these articles are reproduced for the enjoyment of TFF members World-wide by kind permission of the author Anton Coaker and the WMN

Anton Coaker is a fifth generation farmer keeping suckler cows and flocks of hill sheep high on the Forest of Dartmoor and running a hardwood and mobile sawmill.

A prodigious writer and regular correspondent for The Western Morning News, NFU and The Farming Forum, Anton’s second book “The Complete Bullocks” is available from www.anton-coaker.co.uk

 

[joe soapy]

I can do a hitch ok, but despite many hours and years of being shown, I cant for the life of me get the
"rabbit comes out the hole, round the tree and down the hole again"

 

[An Gof]

I must be older than I thought and showing my age as I am adept at using a waggoners hitch.
Amuses me that we have a straw customer, two brothers in their 70's, who have no idea on tying a hitch. For years they arrived with trailers and ropes and couldn't tie the ropes themselves.
Think they must have had a rush of blood to the head as last season they turned up with a set of ratchet straps.

 

[An Gof]

I can do a hitch ok, but despite many hours and years of being shown, I cant for the life of me get the
"rabbit comes out the hole, round the tree and down the hole again"

Thought you only shot rabbits out of a hole.

 

[Jerry]

There's real skill in building a load the old fashioned way. Small bales, old Perry loader that only reached up to the 5th lade. Having to chuck up the last 20 bales to square the load of and roping it down.

Bet not many could do it now.......god I must be old!

 

[joe soapy]

I must be older than I thought and showing my age as I am adept at using a waggoners hitch.
Amuses me that we have a straw customer, two brothers in their 70's, who have no idea on tying a hitch. For years they arrived with trailers and ropes and couldn't tie the ropes themselves.
Think they must have had a rush of blood to the head as last season they turned up with a set of ratchet straps.

If over 70 they will have been brought up on them smart windlass.s that was fitted to all the wagons
Never needed to tie knots with them

 

[An Gof]

Never mind building a load, we used to have to build outdoor ricks of small bales and then sheet with galvanise. Real skill to build freestanding ricks up to 14 courses high that would stand all winter.

 

[An Gof]

If over 70 they will have been brought up on them smart windlass.s that was fitted to all the wagons
Never needed to tie knots with them

Now you really are showing your age

PS is it as wet your side of the river as it is here?

 

[joe soapy]

Thought you only shot rabbits out of a hole.

If bugs gets to the hole he's won..
Did i beat you on the red this time? 32.25

 

[joe soapy]

Now you really are showing your age

PS is it as wet your side of the river as it is here?

Wet,Wet? got 60 young cows and calves out, they nearly ploughed 200 acres of grass
Yet there is other b....s on here telling how they drilling, spraying and planting spuds

 

[llamedos]

I can rope a trailer well enough, probably cant chuck a rope over a high load anymore, but I definitely cant use ratchet straps, the work of the devil

 

[An Gof]

If bugs gets to the hole he's won..
Did i beat you on the red this time? 32.25

Haven't bought any for a while, been so wet since November hardly managed any field work.

 

[joe soapy]

Never mind building a load, we used to have to build outdoor ricks of small bales and then sheet with galvanise. Real skill to build freestanding ricks up to 14 courses high that would stand all winter.

bales easy, try a loose hay rick lifted with a grab, or a corn rick of sheaves with that loverly
rain sheding shape

 

[kelpiekid]

Built ricks of hay and thatched em with rushes (I'm 56 by the way)

 

[kelpiekid]

Built loose hay and loose bracken (for bedding) ricks as well.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Interesting spare wheel in the picture.
Always use a bowline on a towing job.

 

[moorboy]

The rope hitch was the first thing I was taught when I started work as an Agricultural engineer up here in Yorkshire in the early 70s .
Its so effective and can be doubled or even trebled to gear down the action to get loads incredible tight and stable ,i have shown it to many people and I still use to now with taking loads of rubish to the tip etc ,very useful

 

[Pasty]

We used to rope all our hay and straw like this in the 70s. Hitch it so tight the lades would sing and cross the ropes over the top. Bale length was crucial so you wouldn't be popular if you made them too long or too short. All would loaded by hand with grandad on the 4000 and child labour sending up the lower stuff. Then us kids would ride down on top the trailer, sometimes hanging on for dear life if you hit a badger hole, all the while debating which way was best to jump without really having a clue. Then onto the elevator with the men in the lofts and us stacking bales onto the unstoppable death trap. Hands cut to ribbons but gran would bring out ice cold squash on a tray on those sweltering 70s summer days.

I reckon I could still tie one but might need to practice a bit.

 

[Owd Fred]

I remember helping father building shoffs of wheat into a rick, he started with a stook od sheaves in the centre of where the stack was to be built then a completed the bottom layer working round and round to keep the ears of wheat/oats/barley off the ground. On the rest of the building he started round the outside overlaying the second row half over the first heads in to the centre.
With wheat there was a danger of slippage so the second row round the stack would be built with its heads outwards, head to head so to speak that would be less likely to slip, about every fourth course was done like that. We as kids were only allowed to fill in and build the centre shoffs. He then thatched them with wheat straw.

 

[bovrill]

I was delivering a load of grapes to Denbies winery the year before last, all in 40lb picking trays, rather than the big plastic stilages we usually use, and them being a bit delicate, I'd roped them on rather than using straps.
A lad there was helping me unload, fairly fresh out of college, with some fancy degree in something or another, and was fascinated by the dolly hitches I was using. He got really quite animated about how he'd spent three years being taught a lot of useless stuff, and if only they'd spent some of that time instead learning useful, practical old tricks like how to tie things down. He'd only just been shown how a ratchet strap worked apparently!
It was nice to hear, and hopefully he's been learning more this last eighteen months than he did the previous three years!