Saturday 25 August 2012

A Farm Journal ~ from the 19th to the 30th December 1866

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

"A Farm Journal" continues :~

19 Fine day - Kill[e]d pig

20 Fine to Ashford to dine after buying dole at B[akewe]ll

6 - 21 fine & mild weather

7 - 22 Ditto weather Mrs. Slack & Miss Melland came & helped us to divide the Calico

2nd day 24 B[akewe]ll market very dull

3 - 25 Misty & drizzly day went over to Middleton W[illia]m slept there last night 1st time John A[rmitage ?] & Willy & Bertie there I came up home with them to dine they went on to Ashford aft[ernoo]n - our servants Mary Blackwell & Mary Sybray both left us - hired Mary Ann Bagshaw for next year £14 - dull day - har[rowe]d Pewet Knobs prior to plough[in]g

4 - 26 Ditto weather 

5 - 27 cold day

1st day 30 Snow[e]d aft[ernoo]n frosty fornoon [sic] 

2 - 31 Very snowy & stormy tied heifers & sturks & lot of Irish bullocks up - laying stones in Shed & putting bosgins [sic] in for more tying & also in breck cote. 
 

What will 1867 bring ?


6 comments:

  1. Hi Charlie hope things are good with you.You have some varied blogs,makes interesting reading.Fere!!not I will be back.

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    1. Thank you Fere [Mere ?] ... I will look forward to your return and, yes, I'm feeling ok thank you.

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  2. I have always liked his "ditto weather" notations:-) Difficult to believe we've reached 1867 already!

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    1. Yes, the years are flying by. As I told one of my journal readers on Facebook yesterday though, we are only about 3/4 of the way through the first journal I hold. There are three if not four more.

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  3. Sturks, bosgins and breck cote?
    I have no idea what any of that means....

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  4. I am sure you are not alone River though I hope the compilation of your British 19th century agricultural dictionary is doing well.

    Firstly, a sturk [or stirk] is a yearling bullock or heifer.

    Secondly a bosgin [or boskin as we used to call it on Dad's farm] is/was a stone/wooden/concrete division between tied up cows.

    Thirdly [and I'm not sure about this one] is that 'breck cote' is probably a building or possible a field or paddock.

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