Saturday 13 July 2013

A Farm Journal ~ from the 1st to the 15th June 1869 ...

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.]

John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...
 
The Bowman family

 A Farm Journal continues :~
 
3 - 1st 6 Mo[nth] Fine day wash[e]d all sheep
 
4 - 2 Fine morn[in]g showery even[in]g to Chest[er]f[iel]d M[onthly] M[eeting] self too pony & basket
 
5 - 3rd Fine fin[ished] sow[in]g turnips in Ridge piece
 
6 - 4th Ditto S.A. Baby & I to Ashford aft[ernoon]
 
7 - 5 Dull but warmer fin[ishe]d sow[in]g corn turnips & put things away corn late only just about 3 in[ches] high or 4"
 
1st - 6 Fine & warm W.S.W. & warm
 
2 - 7 Ditto very close B[akewe]ll Market Eliza Shaw came
 
3 day - 8 Ditto
 
4 - 9 Fine day F&M up to Meeting
 
5 - 10 Fine day cheese cratch fell & crushed a lot of cheese - we crimmed [sic] it over again being new
 
6 - 11 Walling etc - ditto
 
7 - 12 D[itt]o
 
1 - 13 Ditto Jos[eph] & Mary Burtt at Meet[in]g & here to dine - of the visiting committee - to O.A. to tea - Mother with them
 
2 - 14 Showery began to shear the hogs in aft[ernoo]n
 
3 - 15 Very showery day 

11 comments:

  1. I doubt any harm would have come to the cheese - or to the people who ultimately ate it. :) He says it was young cheese, so it wouldn't even have upset its maturing all that much. You never know, that may even have been the best cheese they'd made yet, having had a turn around on the dairy floor. LOL

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    1. I don't suppose we will ever know Jenny. I would love to have tried some of his cheese though. I wonder how different it would be from the cheese we buy today.

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  2. "Finished sowing corn turnips"? I've never heard of a 'corn turnip', so I'm assuming it was just a case of him not using punctuation?

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    1. I dare say he should have added an '&' between the two words Mitch ...

      Sometimes though he baffles us all.

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  3. I wonder if they took the sheep down Cales Dale to sheepwash bridge,or as we used to call it Cannon Wheel Bridge.The old stone bridge used to have a cannon wheel supporting it from some war,can't remember which at the moment.Now we have the boring safety conscious wooden one,perhaps the stone one was washed. away.Ann

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    1. You're telling me something I've never heard before Ann. If you can remember which war the cannon wheel came from let me know. I wonder if there are any photographs of it ?

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  4. Fantastic to have a diary from so long ago. Gives an insight into the times in a way little else can.
    On a different topic, I thought I'd let you know I came across a couple of your photos on Flickr - Trinity Chapel and Highoredish - picnic area, I think. Left comments on there.

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    1. It is Alison but there's a lot more than just the journals ... the photographs we have and other papers make it a big task for someone, sometime, to pull it all together.

      I've read and commented on your comments on Flickr. I think the ruins of Trinity Chapel are fascinating. Access might be a bit difficult at present because of the nettles.

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    2. There is a photo on "Picture in the Past"website.

      Peter Patilla who runs a Crich website sent me one of the interior, and the same photo mentioned above - he reckons it's pre-1891, not 1930s. Have commented on Flickr.


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  5. Hi Charlie just found on peakdistrictonline about Lathkil Dale and they say it was Cromwell's Army,I do remember that name now.Ann

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    1. I've never heard this story Ann ... but thank you for finding out. There's a Horsedale in Bonsall and apparently it's so named because Cromwell either slaughtered his own horses or the Royalist horses in the dale which then became known as Horsedale. I wonder it that's true ...

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