Life of an agricultural labourer [Archive] - B-G Forums sponsored by Parish Chest Ltd.

Rod Neep

04-12-2005, 05:25 PM

This is a golden opprotunity for me to point you to the very best book on the subject!

The Village Labourer 1760-1832

A wonderful history of the poor in in the villages of the period. It deals with subjects such as enclosure, which had a dramatic effect upon village life and also with the Labourers Uprising of 1830. It also describes in great detail the types of jobs carried out by labourers in the countryside.

An absolutely fascinating read which allows you to understand the hardships and the problems that the ordinary person faced during these times. And that's real family history! Putting yourselves into your ancestors' shoes and understaning all about them and their lifestyles.

And... it is available on CD from the Archive CD Books (http://www.parishchest.com/en-gb/dept_3270.html) project.

http://www.rod-neep.co.uk/acatalog/0581.jpg

clarefmshaw

04-12-2005, 06:02 PM

Thanks Rod!

Yes, I will probably like to buy this CD as I have ag labs in my own family from about this time, and it's a really interesting period.

But I'm really looking at the moment at the lives of ag labs post 1850 and also, particularly, with respect to later in the century, when agricultural mechanisation pushed so many workers into the towns (where, of course, due to the industrial revolution, there was so much work).

I'm looking for a sort of synopsis (ie a few paragraphs) of ag labs in the second half of the 19th century, really to flesh out a family history I'm secretly writing for my husband - ie genealogy meets social history, or as I would like to say, the way social history becomes 'real' for most people like me whose forebears don't figure amongst the 'rich and famous'!

Guy Etchells

04-12-2005, 07:27 PM

Sorry but I must disagree with you there Rod, ;) I would advise
The Village Labourer & The Skilled Labourer (http://www.parishchest.com/en-gb/dept_3270.html) (Reference #0583)
1760-1832. The second book gives an idea of the conditions of those in industrial premises.
At the price they are with the special offer how can they be refused.
Cheers
Guy

clarefmshaw

04-12-2005, 07:49 PM

Cheers Guy, but do you think these cds are relevant to the condition of the ag lab from about 1850 onwards, which is the period I'm more interested in?

Many thanks
Clare

Guy Etchells

04-12-2005, 08:40 PM

Yes, but one must remember that agricultural wages rose during the mid to late 19th century due partly to the Crimean War (1853/5) and the Franco-German war of 1872/3. It wasn't until 1902 (apart for short periods) that labourers wages were really hit.

Having said that agricultural wages were always a sight lower than the wages a labourer could get in town therefore there was a economic driven exodus.
The average farm labourer's wage rose steadily from around 9 shillings and 6 pence per week in 1824 to around 14 shillings an 5 pence in 1898. In addition they got various allowances such as potato ground beer etc.
Cheers
Guy

clarefmshaw

04-12-2005, 08:58 PM

Thanks Guy for the info.

I'm still on the trail of a really basic 'average life' (if there is such as thing) of an ag lab in the second half of the 19th century.

Many thanks

Clare

Sharron

04-12-2005, 09:03 PM

Hello Guy,

As someone who has more ag labs than anything else in their tree (and who doesn't?), I'm curious to know - and forgive my ignorance - why it is that you state that the wages of agricultural labourers were affected by the Crimean and Franco-German wars.

Guy Etchells

04-12-2005, 11:18 PM

War is always a profitable time for people who produce items required for fighting. In the crimea horses & oxen were used extensively and had to be fed corn as they could not be left to graze for nourishment. Demand for corn led to higher prices this in turn led to higher wages. War also develops manpower shortages allowing those left the luxury of demanding more wages.
Think also agricultural labourers were paid about 50% of the wage of an industrial labourer if an industrial labourer left to fight for his country it was likely his place would be filled by an ag. lab.
There was of course more to it than this but that is a very short explanation.
Cheers
Guy

Dennis Harker

05-12-2005, 10:59 AM

Clare,

I see you are from Lincolnshire. That too is where I was born and raised for the first 22 years of my life.

I have been researching the Harker and Gainsborough sides of my family tree for a few months now. They were mainly agricultural workers based in North and East Lincolnshire.

During my research I found my mother had been born in Keelby and many of the Gainsboroughs are buried there. Keelby WEA have produced some excellent books of the village history. When I contacted them earlier this year (Pam Hay) the only publication that was no longer available was the "Keelby, Parish and People 1831-1881" which covers the period you are looking at.

I do have the publications that cover 1765-1831 and 1880-1918. I have looked through these and can't really give you any extracts that would help build the brief picture you are looking for. However, it might be worth you making contact with those listed on the above link. I found Pam Hay to be very helpful and in return I was able to give her some names to put to photographs in one of their publications. My great, great, great grandfather farmed at Keelby (Robert Gainsborough) and one of my aunts and two of my uncles attended Keelby school for a while. Photographs of both of these events were in a publication but with no names.

As Keelby should be fairly close to you I would hope that, if there is information to be had from the group, it will be more appropriate to your area.

Unfortunately most of my family's memories (father, aunts, uncles) would be of life as an agricultural labourer before and after WWII.

clarefmshaw

05-12-2005, 02:31 PM

hi Dennis

Thanks so much for the information, which I will definitely chase up. Your post has actually made me realise that I might have a local WEA publication about our village which might help.......many thanks for reminding me!

Incidentally, I live in the village of Winteringham which is about 20 miles from Keelby. My husband's direct line of agricultural labourers has been in this area, literally within about a 5-mile radius, for almost 300 years - it's been really easy to track them down, although at times rather unexciting!

Clare

Dennis Harker

05-12-2005, 08:47 PM

Hi again Clare,

I was not too far away from Winteringham just over a week ago - visiting my cousin and other members of her family at Elsham. We left a white Somerset, as we'd had a fair bit of snow on the Friday morning, to arrive in a slightly warmer Lincolnshire (that doesn't happen too often). However, by the Monday, as you will know, the snow and ice had found us. Departed in black ice on the Wednesday morning but arrived back in a much warmer Somerset (10°C - almost tropical!).

I started my family research in order to answer a few questions for my mother and father, complete with skeletons that they suspected had been hiding in the cupboard. Sure enough, out they popped and it has made the research all the more interesting for that, both my parents are pleased to have a couple of questions answered at last.

I've also learnt a lot more about how badly off the agricultural industry was at the turn of the century (1900) and it has also made me appreciate a lot more the hardships that they went through to raise their families although they did their best to have some good times whilst surviving on very little money. Most of the close family eventually realised there were better wages for less work in other industries and some went to Scunthorpe steelworks and the like. My Dad moved across to Anglia Water and wished he'd made the move years before. Just clocked up his 85th and still digs his own garden to grow most of their own vegetables. Made of strong stuff in those days!!

I enjoyed growing up having the freedom of the farms (if not the money) but eventually escaped to sea where I spent nearly 39 years in the MN and the eventual pleasure of carrying out a refit in Immingham - a place I had never been to until the RFA decided to send me there! I also remember as a kid catching the paddle ferries from New Holland to Hull and back - it's just a shame that they weren't preserved properly when the bridge opened - another part of history allowed to slip away. I know the Tattershall Castle is on the Thames and I think it is Lincoln Castle alongside as a restaurant in Grimsby - but they've taken so much of the ships' original fittings away.

However, I ramble. Hope you have success in compidships that they went through to raise their families although they did their best to have some good times whilst surviving on very little money.

Best wishes.

!!!

clarefmshaw

11-12-2005, 08:28 PM

Thanks, Dennis, rambling is good in my book!

Sorry that this reply is a bit late, but I've been away for a few days.

No, your reply has been great to read - my husband's family have also been very closely linked with agriculture and iron/steelworking for the past 150 years in this neck of the woods.

It's particularly interesting to read from census info that my husband's forebears on both sides have been 'foremen' in agriculture and steelmaking, which I didn't know before - which may help to explain (in terms of the "gene pool") how my husband ended up as the (current) leading trade unionist at Scunthorpe Steelworks!

thanks again for your reminiscences.

Dennis Harker

12-12-2005, 12:15 AM

Interesting coincidences here. My last four years in the MN were spent working in the RFA Headquarters at Portsmouth. My elected role was as the NUMAST Liaison Officer. This was (and is) a trade union post, still employed by the shipping company but acting for the union, (National Union of Marine, Aviation and Sea Transport officers), who look after MN Officers and I was involved in everything from Policy, negotiations for terms and conditions and representing officers at various hearings. Very, very interesting and rewarding work. I presume your husband feels the same?

Thisby

10-10-2007, 03:03 PM

Hello,

I've been reading this thread with interest as my ggrandmother's family were agricutural labourers (and paper mill workers) in Orpington. It appears that my gg grandmother married into an Ogden family who came from Lancashire/Manchester. I'm wondering was there some migration from the North around the 1830-50s?

It looks as though there is a pattern forming with my other ancestors who were ag labourers in Downham Essex, Langdon Hills Essex, and Churchill Oxfordshire. By the 1880s they seemed to have married and settled in London.

The tide has turned again and most of the current family now live outside London.

jeeb

10-10-2007, 04:28 PM

Hi Clare,
The Illustrated Shepherd's Life by W H Hudson and published by Book Club Associates in 1987 is an excellent read if you are interested in Agricultral Labourers in the latter half of the 19th century. It was first published in 1910 under the title 'A Shepherd's Life'. It tells the story of farm life based on a real life person's account who knew the author. He was a shepherd on a Wiltshire farm through the Victorian reign. It gives details of every day life on a farm as seen through the shepherd's eyes and is probably the sort of material you are after.
I am a present day sheep farmer and I understand and relate well with the writing in this book and can recommend it.

Cheers,
Jeremy

jeeb

10-10-2007, 04:45 PM

Hello,

I'm wondering was there some migration from the North around the 1830-50s?

Hi Thisby,
There was a general migration of people from the countryside into the towns around and after the mid 19th century. This was not just from the north but in general. As mechanisation took over less people were required to work the land and with growth of industry in the towns the population moved to find jobs. Generally pay was better in the towns than agricultral based labour but often at the expense of poorer working/living conditions. Large areas of slum housing grew in the urban areas in latter 19th century to accomodate the mass influx of people moving from the countryside to find work. These back to back houses were crammed with large families and they had little or no sanitation and the infant mortality was high.
Cheers,
Jeremy

suedent

10-10-2007, 05:06 PM

In some cases people who were in receipt of Parish Relief in rural areas were "encouraged" to move to work in the Industrial North.

This subject was covered in the episode of Who Do You Think You Are which featured Jeremy Paxman.

Thisby

12-10-2007, 07:57 AM

jeeb

12-10-2007, 10:00 AM

Hi jeeb,

I've only been researching for a few months and I've come to realise that there's so much more than just finding the names of my acestors

I wonder why my Manchester agricutural labourers moved to Orpington to become agricutural labourers there rather than trying for work in a more urban area. One hard life for another. The men worked the land and the women worked in the paper mill.

I can only imagine my other gg grandparents feelings when they moved from the lovely clean air of Oxfordshire and Essex to one of the small courts in Bermondsey in the 1850s which was right next to a glue factory. Actually I think living in Bermondsey must have been an a assualt on the nose, what with the docks, biscuit and vinegar factories and the tanneries. Sometimes when I walk down by the river, I can still faintly smell the spices that were delivered to the wharves.

I noted that my gg grandfather was listed as an agricultural labourer at the age of 8 in Downham as well as the women in the family. Looks like childhood ended early in those days.

Thisby

Hi Thisby,
Your ancestors will never fail to astound you. The notion held by a lot of people than our ancestors stayed in the same place is total fiction. Of course some families did remain in the same small area all their lives but a great many moved about the country and even abroad on a regular basis. The usual reason for movement was work and as I mentioned before there was a general movement from rural areas into the urban areas after 1850. People often moved to a new area if a relative was already there and it may be worth looking into that for your ancestors movement from Manchester to Orpington. Remember Orpington would be a lot more rural then than it is now. Young girls would seek work as parlour maids, cooks etc and the lads as grooms and servants of various kinds. The people often travelled long distances to find the jobs or simply found jobs locally then moved with their wealthier employers, the censuses bare the facts that servants are often living a long way from their birthplace. These servants married in the area and established a family in a new county many miles from their original home. This of course is only the tip of the iceberg but is one reason why the 'working classes' settled in new areas.

Jeremy

Thisby

15-10-2007, 04:31 PM

True, they astound and fascinate me. You've given me some new ideas for
searching the Manchester side and how they first came to Orpington. I believe there were some large estates in the area, and perhaps they did seek work as parlour maids etc. or as you say moved with their employers. Thank you.

I recently saw a picture of one of the slum courts in Bermondsey c1896 where all the residents were being evicted. It's a truely dreadful place. My great grandmother might well have lived somewhere very much like this.

From my point of view my mother's paternal family have been easier to trace back to around 1820 to the present day as they stayed in Newington/Peckham for nearly 200 years, but after finding a Hollylee 1600s in Enfield I believe they came from another area. Must have be very rural then. So I think I'm in for more surprises.

Jan1954

27-10-2007, 09:22 PM

Thisby

29-10-2007, 12:10 PM

Thank you for the book recommendations they look very interesting. I found them listed on a couple of websites.
I tried to find some information about the strike but haven't have much luck yet.

Your great uncle was obviously a forward thinking man and his new ideas frightened the other labourers into thinking they would loose their jobs. A shame though, that he missed out when the tankard was passed around.
What happened to him?

Amongst my families I would say that at least 60% of them were ag labs one being 8 years old and a few ended up in the workhouse. Hard times.

I started researching my families a few months ago and soon came to realise that there's a lot more to it than just collecting names and dates. I'm only just reaching parish record stage because I'm trying to build a picture of how they lived and worked and, I suppose, trying to put personalities to some of them. So my tree is very wide and short. Fascinating stuff though.

Thanks again

Jan1954

29-10-2007, 08:16 PM

Hi Thisby,

Great Uncle Albert (who lived at the bottom of the garden - but that's another story...) I can just remember. He died sometime in the 1950s/early 60s - yet to confirm (another Smith!) - married rather late in life to a young lady whose mother was the same age as he. A village scandal, I can tell you!

"In the spring and summer of 1914, the villages of Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire borders were in a ferment of discontent. Labourers were being dismissed from their farm employment simply because they wished to join a Trade Union and, when demands for a pay rise of sixpence a week were turned down, the Agricultural Strike began. Although a few national figures lent their support and while there were a few ugly incidents of assault or rick-burning, this is largely the story of humble men finally sticking up for what they saw as their rights."

Quote is from the back of a little 57-page book called "The Empty Fields - the Agricultural Strike of 1914" by Roy Brazier. Published by Ian henry Publications Ltd.

If you can lay your hands on a copy of this, it will certainly give you a flavour of the farm labourer's life back then.

Jan

Bo Peep

29-10-2007, 09:25 PM

We have that book on the Parish Chest (http://www.parishchest.com/en-gb/dept_3277.html).

Thisby

01-11-2007, 08:18 AM

Thank you both for the book information, it sounds very interesting, I'll take a look.

Great uncle Albert seems like quite a character. Your mention of his living in the garden reminded me of a friend of ours who years ago had a disagreement with his parents and pitched a tent in the front garden in full view of passers by.
Needless to say he was back in the house within two days.

Thanks
Thisby

Jan1954

01-11-2007, 08:54 AM

Thisby - I'll explain about Albert...

When Great Uncle Albert was in his 60s, and widowed, he came to stay with my grandparents for a while. However, he didn't get on with my grandma - his sister.

So, each day after breakfast, he would toddle off down to the bottom of the garden to a shed and stay there all day, apart from meals.

I was 3 or 4 at the time and remember creeping down the garden to peer in the shed. Apart from a large pile of magazines, he had a camp bed and a primus stove. Therefore, this young intrepid explorer came to the conclusion that it was in the shed that he lived!

Henceforth, he was always known as Uncle-Albert-who-lived-at-the-bottom-of-the-garden!

Thisby

03-11-2007, 12:38 PM

What a character - I think we all need a great uncle Albert

jeanniet

13-11-2007, 08:40 PM

Hi all
My Family came from a village in Norfolk called Attlebridge and they were all Ag/Lab, but about the time of the Irish Potatoe famine they came south. i beleive that the Irish labourers would have worked for less money so put my family out of work and maybe out of home too. the family name is Secker

Geoffers

13-11-2007, 10:27 PM

My Family came from a village in Norfolk called Attlebridge and they were all Ag/Lab, but about the time of the Irish Potatoe famine they came south. i beleive that the Irish labourers would have worked for less money so put my family out of work and maybe out of home too. the family name is Secker

For all Norfolk dumplings a very good book to get your hands on is:

'Unquiet Country - Voices of the Rural Poor 1820-1880'
by Robert LEE
ISBN 1-905119-03-8
Windgather Press

Aubrey Smith

17-11-2007, 01:52 PM

My great grandfather was an Ag Lab in Essex, and one of the ringleaders of the Essex Agricultural Labourer's Strike of 1914. He ended up in Saffron Walden jail for a few days until the local vicar spoke up for him and the other 6 who'd been imprisoned.

His son, my great uncle Albert, was also an Ag Lab. Albert really embraced modern technology, ploughing fields by using 2 traction engines, one either side of the field, that pulled the plough with him sitting on it across the field between them. However, this cut down on the number of labourers needed - as well as horses - and he was somewhat ostracized. In the pub, they used to have a communal tankard that the labourers shared at the end of the day. He was always missed out when it was passed round...

A great read is Reuben's Corner by Spike Mays. I think it's out of print now, but copies do pop up from time to time on a certain internet shopping site. It will certainly provide a flavour of the life of the Ag Lab.

Forgot: the "sister book" is called Five Miles from Bunkum (Bunkum being the Ashdon name for Saffron Walden)

I think we might share the same Great Uncle Albert? My father Walter John Smith was nephew to Great Uncle Albert who orginated in Ashdon, Essex. My father dealt with Uncle Albert in his final years and seems to have been generally recognised as the only person who could 'handle' the old man. One of my father's duties was to drive Uncle Albert, who then lived in Burwell, to visit his friend Walter Marsh in Ashdon. They met at the Bonnet Inn a pub in Ashdon and spoke of old times when they met the police with pitch forks etc. during the Ashdon Strike of 1914. Albert was a traction engine man and worked for a firm I think that was called Pamplins who did 'plant hire' threshing tackle etc. in the surrounding area. I have a photgraph of Albert with a traction engine in the background. I am interested in your comments on Albert's father who was involved in the dispute in 1914. I have researched a little and discovered that my Great Grandfather John Smith was known as 'toe-rag' Smith because he once cut his foot while using a sickle and cut his shirt tail off to bind his wound. He died as a result of an accident with a pony & trap. The Smith's lived at Steventon End where the census shows a great many Smith's living close by probably all related in some way. I would welcome any further details you might be able to offer regarding the Smith family, the 1914 Dispute at Ashdon and the role if any that the Smith's played in those events. Incidentally Great Uncle Albert is buried in Burwell Graveyard.

Regards Aubrey Smith

Jan1954

17-11-2007, 02:01 PM

|woohoo| Hello Cousin Aubrey!!!

Your grandfather and my grandmother (Martha Jane) were brother and sister.

Please email me direct (visit my profile page for the link) as I'm sure that we can provide each other with loads of information.

Jan

PS Just tried to email you but the link didn't work - have PM'd you as well.

kathy15185

29-02-2008, 04:00 PM

This isn't really a reply to any particular question or comment, but what I hope will be helpful information.

I recently went to a SOG lecture held by Ian Waller about ag labs. The SOG has very recently published one of their guides, written by Ian Waller, called "My Ancestor was an Agricultural Labourer". It gives an outline of an ag lab's life, but also gives information about where to find records of our ag lab ancestors. I have many plans in connection with my genealogy, and one of them is to follow up possible leads based on Ian's guide.

Happy hunting.

Kathy

Bo Peep

29-02-2008, 04:55 PM

The Book, 'My Ancestors was an Agricultural Labourer' is available from the SoG stand at Parish Chest (http://www.parishchest.com/shop/index.php?cmd=listlinkeditems&cat=D4824&supplier=&breadcrumb=Family+History+Societies%2C+etc.%3ASoci ety+of+Genealogists:My+Ancestors+Were...........Se ries).

cobbybrook

17-07-2008, 11:17 AM

This might seem a bit off the wall, but...

...some of my ancestors were agricultural labourers and woodmen in Dorset in the first half of the 1800s, based around the town of Puddletown near Dorchester. I realised that Thomas Hardy's novel 'Far from the Madding Crowd' was loosely based on that area, so read it and found many passages that gave an excellent insight into certain aspects of the life and work of farm labourers of that era. It certainly helped me to obtain a glimpse of my past.:D

Enigma2008

17-07-2008, 05:07 PM

Some years ago (1960's) when I was at school our English Lit. reading material included a book called Brother to the Ox by Fred Kitchen (Caliban books). This was the autobiography of the author which told the story of his life in the rural countryside of west and south yorkshire.

Although the period is later than you require it is a good read and gives a very deep insight into the times.

I believe the book may be out of print or very expensive, but may be available through the library service.

Hope this helps
Regards
Graham

termar

19-07-2008, 01:20 PM

Hi Clare
As a historian specialising in the economic and social history of this period the book I recommend is Rural Life in Victorian England by G E Mingay, it is informative as well as being easy to read and understand.
The main reason for migration to the towns and the demise of the ag lab was the disastrous harvests of the 1870`s:
1875 An exceptionally wet summer
1876 Another exceptionally wet summer and in addition an outbreak of rinderpest an acute contagious disease in cattle
1878 Another wet summer
1879 The worst and wettest summer that most farmers could remember. This was accompanied by an outbreak of liver-rot in sheep
1883 A widespread and violent outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

With the increased growth of the railways in the US, the spread of farm machinery etc the price of English wheat plummeted and soon almost all was being imported. Almost 100,000 men left the land to find work in towns.
Sorry to keep going on buty thi is one of my pet subjects. Please read the book if you can`t obtain it try abebooks.co.uk.