Hay rake

[Old Boar]

A neighbour called asking me what a piece of machinery he had bought was for, obviously being old I would know
I told him it was for raking hay and explained how it worked in general. He asked me what colour it would originally had been and I guessed red, but am not sure. He asked what the holes shown in the photo were for - any ideas, oh wise ones?

The arrow was pointing to the holes in the sticky out bit but seems to have slipped! Now it wont move...
Anyway, any ideas? Any info would be useful. It still has one shaft and would have fitted a fairly large horse, and has the seat etc.
Thanks.

 

[Dry Rot]

Difficults to see in your photo. Have you got one of the whole machine as above?

Could it be to support a frame holding those bars under the "hooks"? They hang from the horizontal bar behind where the seat should be in the above photo and are the Z shaped pieces.

It occurs to me that when lifting the hooks, the hay could still be retained unless the bars shown in my photo stop it coming up, if you get me. I've seen one used in anger but as I was probably 5 or 6 at the time, so I didn't notice the actual mechanics! It was pulled by a Shire horse (17HH - 18HH?) on my uncle's farm in Cornwall, 1940's.

 

[Pan mixer]

I have used one many times but not on a horse - ours was a Lister Blackstone rake, same colour as the one above, so can't help you on colour then.

The important bit was to have the lever well greased so that when you pulled the rope the tines all lifted straight away - this was important as you would rake across the field and let off the hay in rows that went up and down the field, then the baler could come along and tidy up, quite an art getting the rows straight and as the 'boy' at the time I got quite a lot of flack if it wasn't precision from the senior man on the baler.

It would be an ideal job for a tractor with GPS thinking about it as you needed to set out lands as turning too sharp meant rake on tractor wheels and one or two pieces of old iron very bent. Back in 1978 - actually on the 1st December from my diary was the last time I used one though.

 

[colhonk]

Ours was light blue with red wheels.

 

[Pan mixer]

Ours was light blue with red wheels.

That rings a bell especially when you google Lister Blackstone rake, ours didn't have a seat though.

 

[Dry Rot]

I have used one many times but not on a horse - ours was a Lister Blackstone rake, same colour as the one above, so can't help you on colour then.

The important bit was to have the lever well greased so that when you pulled the rope the tines all lifted straight away - this was important as you would rake across the field and let off the hay in rows that went up and down the field, then the baler could come along and tidy up, quite an art getting the rows straight and as the 'boy' at the time I got quite a lot of flack if it wasn't precision from the senior man on the baler.

It would be an ideal job for a tractor with GPS thinking about it as you needed to set out lands as turning too sharp meant rake on tractor wheels and one or two pieces of old iron very bent. Back in 1978 - actually on the 1st December from my diary was the last time I used one though.

That sounds the modern way!

Once the rake has the hay in rows, it is gathered up with a hay sweep. That's like a giant buck rake drawn by a horse. Us kids would get to ride on the heap of hay when it was big enough. Then the mound of hay was forked onto a wagon, taken home and forked off to make a hay stack. Two men work together to fork up the hay. The hay stack might have been sheeted until the thatcher could call around and put a proper thatch on. I asked my uncle about that and he said the thatch made a better job. I think probably because the sheet caused condensation but a thatch breathes. A least, I remember that for corn stacks, not sure if hay was thatched or sheeted.

 

[Pan mixer]

That sounds the modern way!

Once the rake has the hay in rows, it is gathered up with a hay sweep. That's like a giant buck rake drawn by a horse. Us kids would get to ride on the heap of hay when it was big enough. Then the mound of hay was forked onto a wagon, taken home and forked off to make a hay stack. Two men work together to fork up the hay. The hay stack might have been sheeted until the thatcher could call around and put a proper thatch on. I asked my uncle about that and he said the thatch made a better job. I think probably because the sheet caused condensation but a thatch breathes. A least, I remember that for corn stacks, not sure if hay was thatched or sheeted.

We had tractors in Norfolk in the 1970's

 

[Dry Rot]

We had tractors in Norfolk in the 1970's

I'm talking 1940s and 50s. I also remember my uncle getting in a neighbour's little grey Fergie to pull the binder. He explained that pulling the binder was very hard work on the horses (the four legged kind), hence the tractor. Then he got a grey fergie himself and the horses went.

Incidents stick in my mind. I was put on the wagon to stack sheaves of oats aged 12 (?), which I enjoyed. We'd got a full load and nearly cleared the field, but there was still half a row of stooks left (eight sheaves to a stook?). Uncle decided that we'd get those on the wagon too. Of course, the whole load slid off gently to one side! He was always pretty laid back and just left it until the morning! I think it rained oiver night, but probably didn't do much harm.

Most had German prisoners of war working on the farm. One farmer just left his prisoner to it and hardly had to get out of bed in the morning! I remember one helping me clean mud off my boots. Of course, we kids were pretty much indoctrinated during the war and I was convinced I was going to get my throat cut by the man helping me! My sister taught me to count by the bombs dropping on Plymouth. Kids in primary school had a our gas masks, of course, but also a tin of sweets to eat in the shelter if there was a raid, so we looked forward to raids! I can't remember being frightened at all. A neighbour had some sheep stolen. They local (open) prison camp was searched and they had the sheep cut up and every piece of meat utilised. Even the entrails were washed out and hung out to dry.

 

[Pan mixer]

I'm talking 1940s and 50s. I also remember my uncle getting in a neighbour's little grey Fergie to pull the binder. He explained that pulling the binder was very hard work on the horses (the four legged kind), hence the tractor. Then he got a grey fergie himself and the horses went.

Incidents stick in my mind. I was put on the wagon to stack sheaves of oats aged 12 (?), which I enjoyed. We'd got a full load and nearly cleared the field, but there was still half a row of stooks left (eight sheaves to a stook?). Uncle decided that we'd get those on the wagon too. Of course, the whole load slid off gently to one side! He was always pretty laid back and just left it until the morning! I think it rained oiver night, but probably didn't do much harm.

Most had German prisoners of war working on the farm. One farmer just left his prisoner to it and hardly had to get out of bed in the morning! I remember one helping me clean mud off my boots. Of course, we kids were pretty much indoctrinated during the war and I was convinced I was going to get my throat cut by the man helping me! My sister taught me to count by the bombs dropping on Plymouth. Kids in primary school had a our gas masks, of course, but also a tin of sweets to eat in the shelter if there was a raid, so we looked forward to raids! I can't remember being frightened at all. A neighbour had some sheep stolen. They local (open) prison camp was searched and they had the sheep cut up and every piece of meat utilised. Even the entrails were washed out and hung out to dry.

I bow to your seniority, we still had a few POW's about who kind of stayed but they were almost speaking English by the time I worked with them, mostly good chaps too.

One, one eyed Ukrainian had a strange habit of coming into work early and writing slogans (in English but they didn't make much sense to the non-Ukrainian mind) in chalk on the other workers machines - we never quite worked out why but it used to make him chortle when you went past with such things as 'this is a wooden plough' written on you Dowdeswell as you went down the field.

 

[Mursal]

There called holiday makers now ..............

Our's had a seat and a one foot pedal and handle so you could give it fully welly, to lift?
A death trap sitting up there ........

Colour = rust

 

[KennyO]

We used ours occasionally up till about 10 years ago raking up potato haulm so we could burn it (drill had suffolk coulters that would drag haulm).

Was one of my first jobs. Ford 4000 with rake at (1990 ish) 11 years old- king of the world. We had a rope to pull to "trip" the rake.