Saturday 3 August 2013

A Farm Journal ~ from the 1st to the 15th August 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 :~
 
8 Mo[nth] 1st day 1st Fine day
 
2nd Ditto Aunt Wright came up with me from market - lead[in]g manure at Cales
 
3 Showery day Aunt W[right] & self to Middleton
 
4 Fine M[onthly] M[eetin]g - Uncle & Aunt H.S.Brady & Aunt W[right] here Chas Dyson
 
5 Fine morn[in]g wet aft[ernoo]n sold cheese T.G.Orr 70/- & 71/- Aunt H Brady with F&M up in aft[ernoo]n
 
6 Fine
 
7 Fine
 
1st Ditto
 
2 - 9 Showery self with Aunt H B[rady] to Gateshead found all well
 
3 - 10 Dull & showery off to Hexham attend[e]d Northumberland Cattle & impl[ement] show - & on to Holly Bush in even[in]g - had the mortification to get into a Carlisle train at Hexham & got to Haltwhistle & had to stay 4 hours before I could get back
 
4 - 11 Fine at Holly Bush - looked round - the new building almost complete looks very nice room for 20 ton hay - doing the yardwall Wilson Glenwright - had his hay all in pike [?] or very near good crop to Newcastle in even[in]g & down by boat to Shields & to Tynemouth to get my ticket stamped as I had taken a tourist to there & back 43/6 no time to stay as it was 8 o'clock P.M. so ret[urne]d to Newcastle - to Uncles
 
5 - 12 Fine stayed in House till 2pm thence by express arr[ived] Bakew[ell] 8 oclock - home with my dear wife - found all well
 
6 -13 [no entry]
 
7 - 14 lead[in]g manure at Cales
 
1 - 15 Fine B[akewe]ll market Jos[eph] P Drewett [?] came Jos[eph] Lee packed wool & lodged 

8 comments:

  1. Pike means a pointed or peaked stack of hay, made up temporarily in the hayfield (1641).

    JKG

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    1. Thank you JKG. At least I had read John's writing correctly. I've never heard of hay being "in pike" ~ interesting.

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  2. I have never heard of Pike either Charlie.Sounds quite an adventure,and getting the wrong train,and why would he have to go to Shields to get his ticket stamped if he wasn't staying.What a pity we can't get a train to Bakewell now,I did do that before the axe fell.Ann

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    1. It sounds as though we've both learnt something Ann. No, I'm not quite sure whether he had to go to [South ?] Shields to get his ticket stamped. As for a train to Bakewell, who knows, perhaps one day you will be able to get one there. Then what would they do with all the walkers, cyclists and horse riders ?

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  3. It took me a minute to figure out the mortification of getting on a train. At first I assumed he was afraid of those new-fangled machines.

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    1. The word 'mortification' jumped out at me from the page ... then I realised it wasn't such a disaster, though it was probably bad enough in those days. I wonder whether he travelled with any form of weapon ? I'm sure things weren't quite as dangerous as all that but I do wonder ...

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  4. JBB seems to be doing quite a bit of travelling to the North-East in these times.

    I see even in it's relative infancy, train travel could be a bit of an adventure!!

    Can you throw light on the term 'doing the yardwall' ??

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    1. It seems to have something to do with the Brady family, this travelling to the north-east. As you say train travel must have opened up a whole new world with it being in its infancy. 'Doing the yardwall' means building a wall around the yard, I should think ~ important to keep things in or out. When I live on the farm we had a yard within a yard. The inner yard being for me and my brother to play in ...

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