Tuesday 29 October 2013

A Farm Journal ~ from the 23rd to the 30th April 1870

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby, until the end of January 1870 when he moved to Sandycroft Farm, Queensferry, Flintshire.

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had rented 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 :~

7 - 23 Fine weather no rain - have 5 Irish & Will[ia]m Davis extra for potato setting

1 - 24 F & M S & I to Meet[in]g

2 - 25 Fine waiting of potato sets - was disappointed by Davis of Hawarden about a truck of Scotch Down sets - so had to see out for some - men forking twitch from among beans

3 - 26 Fine carts to Argoed near Mold for some Skerry blue sets of John Griffiths @ 3/- p[e]r 90 lbs & across to the sands for some Scotch downs @ 3/-

4 - 27 Fine but desperate windy & dusty - setting potatoes - 2 teams gone to work for old Rector Davis - another load of Scotch down sets from Jos[eph] S. Windley - fin[ishe]d setting my potatoes the men have theirs to set in morn[in]g - 4 rows each to 3 plough men & Wright 2 ea[ch] to Jimmy - Rob[er]t & John Jones & Edward - working stackyard for swedes - turning manure in yards - Joiner E.Davis & son making some sheep troughs & made & put up new hatch gate for end of bank

5 - 28 fin[ished] potatoes - work[in]g rem[ainde]r for cabbage 

up to 7 day 30th Fine but dry - bro[ugh]t mare of Beckett of Peel Hall home from Chester & left the old mare with Jones & Gerrards 

13 comments:

  1. I see the Skerry Blue is actually a blue potato, I'm certainly learning some new things since he moved to Wales.I wonder what they thought of this English man moving into Wales.Ann

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    1. I'd never heard of Skerry Blue potatoes though I see they are still available. Yes, it does make you wonder what they thought of John. He had moved to the 'border country' though hadn't he ...

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  2. I do like blue potatoes ... it must have been a large farm, Charlie.

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    1. I can't say that I have ever knowingly eaten blue potatoes ... though I do like potatoes more and more the older I get. So far we've had no idea as to the extent of the farm ~ perhaps we will learn more as we go along.

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    2. Blue potatoes are especially good with fish. We had some this summer that were positively navy in colour! A deep navy.

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    3. I will have to look out for them.

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  3. Can you throw any light on the phrase "men forking twitch from among beans" ?

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    1. 'twitch' is a grass Mitch ~ there's a photograph here ~ https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=twitch+grass&client=firefox-a&hs=jws&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=EE1yUoWrHuWd0AXy_oHIDQ&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=796&dpr=1#facrc=_&imgrc=0Tcd9Pwz-X3IjM%3A%3BdZ_9GPq_vbvOgM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fapps.rhs.org.uk%252Fadvice%252FACEImages%252FJDR4815_145737.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fapps.rhs.org.uk%252Fadvicesearch%252Fprofile.aspx%253Fpid%253D283%3B432%3B288 ~ of the offending plant. If you don't get all the root up it will grow again next year.

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  4. Replies
    1. Potatoes with an [un]healthy knob of butter on them ~ lovely.

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  5. Blue potatoes!!!! They are so good, hard to find and more expensive as over here the fancy restaurants and hotels are the firsts to get those.

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