(John Wales speaking and standing in Earith High Street)
Jewson’s gave casual work to many villagers, portering wood from barges to their yard.
But farming was the biggest Industry (around the area) and with the busy weekly market in St Ives livestock was put on the local train to Somersham and then distributed to local farms by pony and trap.
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Earith was part of the parish of ‘Bluntisham cum Earith’ but in area, it was quite small in relation to Colne or Bluntisham, being enclosed on two sides by rivers so the bulk of the area was wash land, – land that flooded in the winter time but excellent grazing in summer, especially the dry ones.
The farms in Earith in the 1930s
There (were) only two actual farms in Earith — Rickyard Farm at the west end – 60 odd acres of arable surrounded by orchards of the Colne and Bluntisham fruit growers.
And New Farm owned by the County Council on the north side of the village but this was a very poor farm being on gravel land and subject to drought in a dry summer. [This is still in Earith 1
There were other farms of very good land but these were over the High Bridge in Haddenham parish and the Isle of Ely.
They were all farmed by Earith men and Earith men worked on them and two of them belonged to my Uncles.
The Harp Farm, buildings and cowsheds opposite the railway station, the land itself further down the causeway on the left just past Gipsy Corner and farmed by Herbert Hard.
Then, on the right Hermitage Farm owned by Mr. Wright — a large farm employing a lot of men from Earith and Haddenham, and still going today. 2
The row of cottages at West End on the left was owned and housed men from this farm.
A drove ran past the Hermitage Farm down to Snows Farm owned by my Uncle Harry Dring and another Uncle, Ted Burling, who farmed down Cracknell Drove which led off Long Drove which went to Aldreth.
What 1930s Earith farming consisted of
The whole of the centre of Earith, bounded by Back Lane (Chapel Road), Meadow Drove, and Cooks Drove, was all orchards and most of the land down Earith Fen and all the washes, of course, were grass.
With all the grass, the emphasis of Earith farming was on cattle and horses for grazing and especially cows for milking and there were at least 15 or 16 herds of cows in Earith.
About half of these were classed as big herds employing milkmen, as it was all done by hand, about 10 or 12 cows and the others of 3 to 5 cows were milked by their owners before they went off to other work.
Earith farming was full of little, independent men earning their own living perhaps milking 2 or 3 cows, farming a 2-acre smallholding and having a small orchard and growing not only top fruit but soft fruit like gooseberries, and red and black currants as well.
All the transport was by pony and trap, or horse and cart, and the railway, which took away the milk in the mornings and delivered the papers.
The fruit went to London and the Northern markets in the afternoons.
(Extracts from ‘Keeping Time by the Crows’ University of Cambridge
John Wales retains copyright on original contributions)
Farming with cows and horses
In Earith my father was a calf dealer and farmer, as were his forebears and we had a yard full of Hackney horses and a stallion used for pulling the traps for delivering the calves and also a team of very smart cart horses for the land work.
Father would attend St. Ives and Ely markets every week buying and selling calves and cattle and, once a week, he would go by train from St. Ives to Derby market.
The traps would carry four calves with their legs crossed and tied and on the train they would be sewn into a sack with a label on them and put in the Guard’s Van.
My uncle worked for my father and he was a horse keeper.
Ploughing the land and helping deliver and collect calves from the station and as a lad, I went with him to lead the horse when ploughing under the plum trees and also ride bareback on the horse in front of two others pulling a grass cutter, which was hard work for them.
Earith farming, a dying industry from 1920
In the 1920s and 30s, farming was at rock bottom and much of the land was left derelict, hedges were overgrown because farmers couldn’t afford to pay to have them cut and all the land in Over Fen, opposite Earith, was rough grass grazed by sheep.
Plums would be picked, packed and sent to the markets but they wouldn’t make enough money to pay for the carriage.
Earith farming revived in 1939
It was not until the coming of the war in 1939 that farming not only picked up but thrived.
There was a serious demand for products, because of ‘U’ boats and the blockade.
Every spare scrap of land, like tennis courts and gardens, was dug up to produce food.
I started farming on my own when I left the Army in 1949 after war service, at Stud Farm in Earith (now Vermuyden).
The farm of 60 odd acres was all grass, except for one field of six acres, the Bank ground (later the site of the Hovertrack) and included Little Fen and the fields down Wash Drove.
John Wales’ Friesan herd
We milked about 40 Friesian cows and became tuberculin tested (TT) — something unheard of in my father’s day.
In those days, milk was drunk ‘raw’ with no heat treatment.
We milked by hand at 6 in the morning then delivered round the village by eight o’clock and served from a large milk churn holding about 17 gallons and carried on a horse-drawn milk float, direct to the householder’s jug.
There were no hygiene regulations or rules on how or where the cows were kept and I suppose we just built up a strong immune system against any germs.
(Extracts from ‘Keeping Time by the Crows’ University of Cambridge.
John Wales retains copyright on original contributions)
(John Wales speaking and standing in Earith High Street)
Extracting gravel and milking cows
Frank Harradine – to make a bit more money from his cows – used to dig gravel by hand from the old Bedford River just after it comes out through the 7 Holes Bridge.
Then it used to dry out, he had a screen, a metal screen, and he used to throw a shovelful at the screen and the gravel stopped this side and then he’d hump it in this wheelbarrow up onto the drove up the top.
He’d milk these cows he had in the field at the top with a barn, and it was one of those made by Garner Thoday, all aeroplane wings and things to make the roof.
Oh, they used to work hard, his wife, used to pull all the milk up the street on a little wheeled truck and every morning she used to go by our house up to Parren’s Yard, which is now the old people’s home, pulling this churn of milk.
Earith farming’s smelly silage
We started making silage and it used to smell quite bad.
We dug a pit, or I dug a pit, over in the farm there and it ponged all over the village.
Dug the pit down on the side of the road, then put the grass in and then spray it with treacle stuff, it used to get in your clothes and you went home and sat by the fire — oh it did smell!
The grass came from over the washes — just over the bridge various fields we had.
Cut with the grass cutter, Little Fen as well.
I remember cutting that with the grass cutter, didn’t get finished so left it there overnight, went back the next morning and the water had come up and the water was halfway up the grass cutter wheels and it was weeks before we could get back on to it.
Weeding the fields by hand
I used to go by the crows when I was a lad to know what time it was, I’d be right down the end of the field, hoeing with Dad, there was no spray (chemicals to kill weeds) in those days and all the corn had to be done by hand, rows and rows, thousands of them.
We’d be down there by eight in the morning, a lad of eight or less, but usually, I’d notice about 4 o’clock time the crows would start coming over and they’d go across to the grass field and I used to say to father “The crows are going home, father” and he’d always say “We’ll have just one more round”.
And he used to do that at lunchtime, we used to go home for lunch by bicycle and mother would get lunch for 1 o’clock and it’d get to about 5 minutes to one and I’d say “Lunchtime?” and he’d look at his pocket watch and say “We’ll just have one more round.”
So that meant hoeing around and it would be another half hour before we got home and Mother would be moaning!
(Extracts from ‘Keeping Time by the Crows’ University of Cambridge
John Wales retains copyright on original contributions)
The next article [14] Huntingdon Grammar School days
Or see the first article in this series: [1] 1930s Earith National Fishing attraction
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