The good old days?

[Princess Pooper]

Dad worked on farms in the 1950's-1970's. He bought his first house in about 1976 when no longer working on farms so at least he managed to get a foothold outside of tied cottages. Always a mixed blessing.

 

[DrWazzock]

Wasn’t much easier for tenant farmers. Grandmother had to leave the farmhouse in 1976 when grandfather died. The only capital they had was their herd of cattle. I don’t recall my grandparents ever going on holiday. They employed 13 workers at the peak, but my grandfather just seemed to be one of them. Dead at 66 in the cattle yard. He never made a fortune but took on and trained many a lad who went on to better things. Everybody knows there’s just no money in farming. Never has been, never will be.

 

[Cowcorn]

Dad worked on farms in the 1950's-1970's. He bought his first house in about 1976 when no longer working on farms so at least he managed to get a foothold outside of tied cottages. Always a mixed blessing.

I watched that and was astounded by the large 4000 acre arable farmer who couldnt afford another shilling a week for his workers ....
Didnt look like he got his hands dirty though !!
Loving the job wont put bread on the table or a roof over your head .
Felt sorry for those who were trapped in tied houses with low wages .
Serfdom by another name .

 

[suffolksmallholder]

My mother was fifteen when she and my great grandparents walked off their farm just behind Mersea Island after the 1953 floods @Pan mixer. (Little Wigborough)
They went to live in Yorkshire.
The largest part was later sold but a considerable part has remained untouched since that time and is a wild bird sanctuary.
My GGF then led the huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ life ‘till his death.
SS

 

[kiwi pom]

Dad worked on farms in the 1950's-1970's. He bought his first house in about 1976 when no longer working on farms so at least he managed to get a foothold outside of tied cottages. Always a mixed blessing.

Thanks for putting that up. I think these are the good old days Bluebell keeps talking about on here.

Looks a bit shite to me. I left school in 89 so before my time but I worked with guys from that era who were retiring and where they were going to live was a real worry, as they had never been able to save anything close to a house deposit.
A chap on the video fetched up a good point, where if the worker died his wife had to leave the house.

Has much changed? still the same complaints of there's no money in the job and other countries have it easier.
I think it's a bit better now, my brothers still in England and has worked on farms all his life, he now owns a decent modest house (with a mortgage) but it's taken until his mid 40's to get to that stage.

 

[kiwi pom]

I watched that and was astounded by the large 4000 acre arable farmer who couldnt afford another shilling a week for his workers ....
Didnt look like he got his hands dirty though !!
Loving the job wont put bread on the table or a roof over your head .
Felt sorry for those who were trapped in tied houses with low wages .
Serfdom by another name .

They asked him if he ever wondered how his staff managed on what he paid them.
You can tell the thought had never entered his head.
Poor bloke looked like he was doing it hard though bless him.

 

[Devil's advocate]

What a piece of history. Those soon to retire men about the same age as my Grandad.

Would have started full time work age 12 to 14, live through two world wars, the depression, start work doing jobs with hand work or horses & see the adoption & development of tractors.

Granddad & Grandma likely watched the programme on there tv.

I found a clip of the foundation stone of Barnsley technologial college been laid in 1933, with the young king with a cerimonial spade. Then realised Grandad was in the crowd cheering.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I watched that and was astounded by the large 4000 acre arable farmer who couldnt afford another shilling a week for his workers ....
Didnt look like he got his hands dirty though !!
Loving the job wont put bread on the table or a roof over your head .
Felt sorry for those who were trapped in tied houses with low wages .
Serfdom by another name .

James Dyson of his day, without the street cred.

 

[Princess Pooper]

A family member was in tied cottages but thank goodness he was wise enough to buy a house whilst his wife was earning a good wage to help pay the mortgage in their early years together. They did move back into another tied house when he was promoted to manager as he had to live at the yard. They rented their place out.

He changed job and there was no house with the new job so at least he was not homeless and now he is approaching retirement with the mortgage nearly paid off.

 

[kiwi pom]

One of the things we forget is back then it was a little more unusual for the wife to be working, especially if there were kids. So they really were stuck with just a farmworkers wage.
When I arrived my mum actually had a better job and career options than my dad who was a bricky and could have earned a lot more but the idea of dad staying home and mum going back to work was unheard of.
Thankfully we have at least improved there a bit over the years.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

One of the things we forget is back then it was a little more unusual for the wife to be working, especially if there were kids. So they really were stuck with just a farmworkers wage.
When I arrived my mum actually had a better job and career options than my dad who was a bricky and could have earned a lot more but the idea of dad staying home and mum going back to work was unheard of.
Thankfully we have at least improved there a bit over the years.

Yes it's funny when you consider that putting meals on the table.... raising and birthing children ....keeping things up to scratch in the house and gardens.. and being an endless supply of support ...is still considered "not working"

Maybe it's not funny but simply amazes me that we so often diminsh that massive contribution

 

[Yale]

My grandfather on my mother’s side passed away 2 years before I was born. Grandparents were tenant farmers. When he passed my grandmother lost the tenancy and moved out of the farm. The estate they were on had a policy due to tax purposes that empty farm houses were a burden. They sent the diggers in and flattened the house and it has only ever had the land let out since. Very sad really when you are asked to leave your home after losing your husband, then all the memories of your home are demolished. From then my grandmother lived on a rotor with us occasionally, and otherwise with my other aunts and uncles. In a way she had a great later life as she got to live with all her grand kids and see them grow up. Sometimes a positive can come from a negative.

 

[Farmer Roy]

An old ( he is now in his 90’s ) farmer / shearer / hay / grain harvesting contractor, once said to me years ago “the only good thing about the ‘good old days’ is that they are gone”

fair enough, I thought, considering everything he had seen and the sheer heartbreaking body destroying work he would have done over the years . . .

 

[livestock 1]

An old ( he is now in his 90’s ) farmer / shearer / hay / grain harvesting contractor, once said to me years ago “the only good thing about the ‘good old days’ is that they are gone”

fair enough, I thought, considering everything he had seen and the sheer heartbreaking body destroying work he would have done over the years . . .

My late father said exactly the same

 

[czechmate]

Dad worked on farms in the 1950's-1970's. He bought his first house in about 1976 when no longer working on farms so at least he managed to get a foothold outside of tied cottages. Always a mixed blessing.

facinating. It’s from 1969?

 

[DrWazzock]

My grandfather on my mother’s side passed away 2 years before I was born. Grandparents were tenant farmers. When he passed my grandmother lost the tenancy and moved out of the farm. The estate they were on had a policy due to tax purposes that empty farm houses were a burden. They sent the diggers in and flattened the house and it has only ever had the land let out since. Very sad really when you are asked to leave your home after losing your husband, then all the memories of your home are demolished. From then my grandmother lived on a rotor with us occasionally, and otherwise with my other aunts and uncles. In a way she had a great later life as she got to live with all her grand kids and see them grow up. Sometimes a positive can come from a negative.

Very similar here. Farmhouses and most of the farmyards wiped from the face of the earth. Land taken back in hand farmed on an industrial scale. Doesn’t do much for the fabric of rural communities. Sad.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I would have the good old days back everyday of the week and twice on Sunday, nothing like the shite we have now
Paperwork was a tax return once a year

 

[DrWazzock]

It really is the strangest feeling to think that the assets that your family lived on and which provided considerable local employment were regarded as completely obsolete and insignificant by those higher up, almost like rubbish that had to be got rid of.
It feels a bit like that now TBH. Yet I don’t really see much joy or security in the brave new Agri industrial system that’s displacing us : except maybe for those at the very top. Personally I think we are all the poorer for loss of people off the land. Yet everybody seems hell bent on reducing manpower and replacing it with robotics etc. And the folk who might have at least a job they got some satisfaction from (believe it or not) are now surplus to requirements or on a zero hours contract.

 

[livestock 1]

I would have the good old days back everyday of the week and twice on Sunday, nothing like the shite we have now
Paperwork was a tax return once a year

One thing I remember was even though we had a lot of stock to look after and not a fantastic amount of gear we always had dinner 1 pm on a Sunday regardless of what we were doing everyone came in for dinner workers included the big table was pulled out so we could all fit round and it was quite a jolly affair with everyone having a good crack and laugh
Mother always put tins of lager on the table and those who wanted a drink with the dinner had a one

 

[czechmate]

I watched that and was astounded by the large 4000 acre arable farmer who couldnt afford another shilling a week for his workers ....
Didnt look like he got his hands dirty though !!
Loving the job wont put bread on the table or a roof over your head .
Felt sorry for those who were trapped in tied houses with low wages .
Serfdom by another name .

His profit was 30 men’s wages