Historical photos from North Norfolk

[sjt01]

As requested by JP1. Lets start with my Great Grandfather

We can date this one at about 1920, after the War Memorial was erected but before the street was tarred.

 

[Cab-over Pete]

Was it a windy day when they put the memorial up?

 

[sjt01]

Was it a windy day when they put the memorial up?

Its a photographic distortion, it is really upright!

 

[Two Tone]

Was it a windy day when they put the memorial up?

No, WW2 hadn’t happened by then, so all the names were only on one side!

 

[bitwrx]

As requested by JP1. Lets start with my Great Grandfather

Bet he was one tough old boy! Imagine the work done by hand in those days.

 

[JP1]

Bet he was one tough old boy! Imagine the work done by hand in those days.

Loving his leather gaiters too

Thanks @sjt01 for starting the thread. I can see this is going to be one of my favourite threads

 

[sjt01]

Lets try some harvest pictures. The first one is 1934, not sure about the others. We did not have a tractor until the war.

 

[sjt01]

Time for a film. Black & white footage taken in 1944 by my Uncle who was a Doctor in the RAF at Horsham St Faiths. Featuring my grandparents and my father, plus a few farm staff. I think we were farming 60 or so acres at the time. The colour footage was taken by my father in the 50s, mainly 1958 and features the building of the cowhouse and milking parlour we are now using. We were farming about 800 acres then.

 

[sjt01]

Found another of Great Grandfather, this time at plough with a Cornish of Walsingham Norfolk Gallus plough

 

[JP1]

Dad said many farms near him in Essex never had tractors until the war and US farm support

Horsemen became self taught and resourceful mechanics

 

[JP1]

Found another of Great Grandfather, this time at plough with a Cornish of Walsingham Norfolk Gallus plough

Despite a power cut I’ve managed to watch half of your film on one pip of 3G

How lovely to watch . You have some treasure there worth more than riches ; your family heritage and history of the farm you still farm in memories that would otherwise have been gone

Thank you again for posting

 

[JP1]

Lovely film. Just finished watching now the power’s on

A good reminder of how machines have replaced a lot of manual work

 

[d williams]

Time for a film. Black & white footage taken in 1944 by my Uncle who was a Doctor in the RAF at Horsham St Faiths. Featuring my grandparents and my father, plus a few farm staff. I think we were farming 60 or so acres at the time. The colour footage was taken by my father in the 50s, mainly 1958 and features the building of the cowhouse and milking parlour we are now using. We were farming about 800 acres then.

Could you explain the manual hoeing seems to be their identifying things and moving them plants separate thanks best thread in a while

 

[bitwrx]

Could you explain the manual hoeing seems to be their identifying things and moving them plants separate thanks best thread in a while

I think they're 'singling'. Basically, before the advent of precision drills they planted seed all along the row, then hoed out the plants they didn't want in order to get the plant spacing they did want. I'm guessing it's probably a beet crop of some sort.

(That's my best guess. Could be wrong on all counts... Apologies if so.)

 

[d williams]

I think they're 'singling'. Basically, before the advent of precision drills they planted seed all along the row, then hoed out the plants they didn't want in order to get the plant spacing they did want. I'm guessing it's probably a beet crop of some sort.

(That's my best guess. Could be wrong on all counts... Apologies if so.)

Thanks that’s what I assumed but wasn’t sure

 

[JWL]

Even though I'm only in my mid-fifties watching those films brought back some memories for me. Those images of hand hoeing are what one of my first jobs after leaving school entailed allthough not on that scale thankfully and it was only a 10 acre patch of mangolds for the sheep flock which we clamped later on in the year.
The tractor binder took me back to summer holidays with my old man who worked on a farm near to Warwick who grew all of his straw for thatching. He had a collection of binders and back in the late 70's took delivery of a brand spanking new binder from Poland. That one was on rubber tyres, driven off a pto and was handed strangely to the right which caused a bit of head scratching from the tractor drivers before they got used to it.
I can remember going with my old man with a Thames Trader set up with a bed extension and huge raves off delivering thatching straw all over the country, he was really chuffed when the Trader got replaced with a newer, longer Ford D Series where it wasn't such a struggle to get a decent load on.
Happy memories? In a lot of ways yes but I was only a kid and not really aware of the amount of physical work that went into the job but there was a lot more pleasantness with a good bunch of workers who were there for the sake of the farm and business as opposed to making as much money as possible to pay the bills and have enough left over to keep themselves in all the trinkets we seem to need nowadays

 

[sjt01]

Thanks that’s what I assumed but wasn’t sure

You are correct. The beet in those times were planted as "seeds" which were fruit containing several seeds, so when they emerged you singled them down to one plant every foot or so. Each man had several rows pegged out, and they were paid by the yard.

 

[Godber]

Great films. I can just remember watching beet hoeing by hand. The only job done as 'peace work', paid by the chain.
Were bean crops harvested the same way as cereals, through the binder and stooked up ect ?
Thanks for sharing @sjt01

 

[sjt01]

Peas were cut with a pea cutter on the back of an Allis, driven backwards (early reverse drive) then put on 4 legged tripods (quadpods) by pitchfork, then fed into the front of the combine by pitchfork. See in the next video I will post.

 

[sjt01]

More from the 1950s, including a Jones self propelled wire tying baler, cutting peas in reverse and cutting opium poppies with a binder.