A Farm Journal ~ from the 13th to the 30th June 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 ...

 A Farm Journal continues :~

 

2 - 13 Fine fin[ishe]d thin[nin]g & hoeing swedes in No 2 as far as ready - cut[tin]g grass for beasts in shippon

 

3 - 14 Fine took 3 bullocks & cow & 3 store pigs to the Ermine Sale Pickerings - a poor sale could do as well at home Charles & Sidney * came - Eliz[abe]th & Polly & Nelly on to Rhyl

 

4 - 15 Fine at Potatoes flat hoeing

 

5 - 15 Ditto - Showery aft[ernoo]n Hawarden festival all went but S.A. S.F.A. came to dine from Rhyl (Joanna etc there) - went with us - left 6.40 for Nott[ingha]m

 

6 - 17 Fine - thinning swedes

 

7 - 18 Showery Chas & Sid & I to Thornton Moor to look at filly ley[e]d there - back to station C&S home by M[an]chester

 

1 - 19 Fine

 

2 - 20 Ditto SA & baby I to nurse to Rhyl to spend day with Lizzy & Co.

 

3 - 21 Fine

 

4 - 22 Fine

 

5 - 23 Showery - Nurse left

 

[No entry for 6 - 24]

 

7 - 25 Very cool N wind - thinning Swedes in No 2 - Scuffling potatoes 2nd time - tied 4 heifers up & are now feeding about 12 indoors with grass & cake

 

2 - 27 Fine Lizzy & Co home took to Chester - began mow[in]g - No 14 clover very poor crop - started Samuelson's Eclipse ** without track bond but would not work so bro[ugh]t one back from Chester started

 

3 - 28 & cut 10 ac[res] changing 1 horse worked very well - soiling potatoes & thin[nin]g swedes

 

4 - 29 Fine finish[e]d mow[in]g clover - Joanna & children here

 

5 - 30 they left Fine shower at night - Chester - Pickering  wool sale mine sold there 73 ewes Cheviot & Leicester @ 1/2 1/4 p[e]r lb & 25 Lester Hogs  

 

 

* Charles and Sidney are the two young boys in the photograph above. I believe the photograph was taken before 1870. They were two of my great great grandparents' children though not on my direct line.

 

** There is reference to some of Samuelson's implements if you click here. 

 

 

Passing the pike ...

... not a Victorian parlour game but what I did when taking a walk a couple of years ago in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. 

You see there's a pike that lies in the water at the Cromford end of the Cromford Canal that must be over  two feet long ... no, really ... just look at him or her ...

 

I know it would have helped if there had been something else in the water to help you compare but take my word ... this pike is over two feet long.

Sir Richard Arkwright's Cromford Mills were my starting point for a springtime walk in 2011. After passing the pike I walked past this rather attractive old redbrick building set amongst the even older stone-built ones of the Cromford Mills set-up ...



  I passed the old Primitive Methodist Chapel at Scarthin, now a private house, with this engraving above the front door ...



 I have shown this engraving before but I still think it is one of the most poignant ones I have ever seen.

Almost immediately I took the paved path up towards Hillside on my way towards Matlock Bath ...



 ... and, in particular, Upperwood. Isn't it beautiful ?



  The path runs along the private drive hereabouts on the hillside above the busy village of Matlock Bath ...



 ... from where you can get a distant view of Riber Castle across the other side of the valley ...



 The lane up to Upperwood has its drawbacks as you can see but it is a lane open to all vehicles. Imagine driving up here in any sort of car ...



 After a while I took a narrow, overgrown path leading downhill towards Matlock Bath ...







On reaching the main road, the A6, as it passes through Matlock Bath, I turned right back towards the start, passing this trough belonging to the Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association where it stands not so far from the church ...



 Then I was walking beneath another of Arkwright's amazing mills. This time Masson Mill built in 1783 but 'established' in 1769 ...







  A riverside path between the River Derwent on the left and the limestone tor of Scarthin Rock on the right leads to Cromford Church where you can turn right back to the canal ...

 

... and that enormous pike.

This walk was followed on the 27th May 2011
 
Length of walk ~ 2.82 miles *
 
Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 198.98 miles
 
Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 27th May 2011 ~ 720.72 miles

  44 of 2011 [which means in 2011 I was still averaging just over 4.5 miles a walk.]
 
* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Ticking away ~ Day 1112 ... a third stay in hospital.

As some of you will already know I had a third stay in hospital over the weekend.

I'd gone to bed on Thursday evening having spent an enjoyable evening with my daughter and Gary watching World War Z. By midnight it was noticeable that there were some spots/blotches around the top of my fat right leg ... and by very early morning they were worse and I was feeling less than 100%.

Calls were made to a certain telephone number where we had to quote my reference which relates to me and which avoids calling 111 etc. By 7am [it may have been earlier] I knew I was going to be taken to hospital with cellulitis again. I believe the prophylatic antibiotics I've taken for the last few months saved me from being as poorly though. I had a temperature though it wasn't so bad as the second trip to hospital in June and although I was sick in a convenient bedside bucket it was only fairly minor.

I wasn't a bundle of fun in the ambulance though. I just wasn't interested.

I wound up in a new department in hospital, Ambulatory Care, part of the CDU [Clinical Decisions Unit] and they kept me in a bed on Friday evening on the antibiotics I was on before during my second stay.

I had thought that surely on my third visit to hospital it couldn't be as eventful as the other two ... but it was ... with all sorts of men being walked in by the police and ambulance men and women. This included one young man who had taken an overdose of paracetamol [which could have done a lot of damage to his liver apparently] and an older man who was apparently drunk [he didn't sound or seem it] who had fallen down some steps and been brought in by the police into the bed next to me ... in the middle of the night. He was chatty ... with himself ... the lights were out ... everyone else [pretending to be] asleep. He kept saying "I think I might leg it ..." Next morning I learnt that he had, in fact, "legged it" preferring to walk to Alfreton 7 or 8 miles away rather than stay in a warm bed for the night.

Then on Saturday evening I was told I could go home provided I came back every day for an intravenous antibiotic injection. So on Sunday, Monday and today I've travelled the 11 miles to hospital for the fitting of a canulla, then an intravenous injection before the canulla is removed. It beats staying in hospital though it has to be said my forearms are rather more bruised than normal.

By this coming Friday I may well be clear to revert to prophylatic antibiotics. We'll see. Life is certainly far from dull at present ... and I still feel ok, that is the amazing thing.

A Farm Journal ~ from the 28th May to the 12th June 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 ...

 A Farm Journal continues :~

 

7 - 28 to 6 of 6 Mo[nth] Very hot dry weather no rain - ridging beans up - scuffled potatoes & some swedes in No 2

 

7 - 4th self to M[an]chester met F & M at Station & on to Longstone with them

 

1 - 5 Meet[in]g met our Amer[ican] Friends - Anna le Field & daughter Caroline - to dine at Ashford - also her son Rich[ar]d & sister Emily Cromwell & friend Mrs. Daniels & daughter - very agreeable company seemed very much pleased with this part of England - staid all night at Ashford

 

2 - 6 B[akewe]ll Fair - not busy slender show of beasts & sheep - to Middleton to lodge

 

3 - 7 W[illia]m & I to B[akewe]ll Bowers looked round & back to dine - then to One Ash had tea & then looked round farm - lodged at O.A. & on to M[an]chester

 

4th day to B.B.'s & on Home aft[ernoo]n found all well no rain yet - grass going  back

 

5 - 9 dry fin[ishe]d hoeing & ridging beans - in full flower looking well - scuffling Swedes & thinning to end of week

 

1st day 12 Showery day self to Chester meet[in]g met Co[u]s[in] H. Abbott & (Henrietta Holmes) WETurner Tho[ma]s Jackson & Mary Bodle - on appointr [?] to visit us on rec[eip]t of our Certificate - they all came to dine here & took  tea & back to meet[in]g even[in]g - very nice agreeable friends S.A. was down & was very active but took no harm 

Ticking away ~ Day 1107 ... well, at least the sun is shining...

I've had a visit to the hospice and a visit to the hospital this week and it seems that [other than a monthly dose of bone-strengthening drugs] there is little more to offer other than palliative care from here on in.

I had thought that a further session of chemotherapy might be available but the doctor thinks that it might do more harm than good. So, to maintain my quality of life, there is probably not much more that they can do other than keep me pain free or at least as pain free as possible.

I now have to take this onboard and live with it.

It was nice to see a couple of the nurses who had looked after me when I had the chemotherapy ~ they came over and had a word. It may be that I won't need to go back there in future. It is more likely I will be visiting the hospice. Indeed I will be getting the bone-strengthening drugs there in due course. The staff at the hospice also keep an eye on my swollen legs.

We forgot to take a photo outside the hospital yesterday but we decided to go and have a pub meal where I had a chocolate sundae after enjoying a bacon joint with bubble and squeak and a cider sauce.

We took a photo in there though, well Jamie did. It shows me enjoying an apple and raspberry J2O ...

 

Meanwhile here in Derbyshire it's a beautiful day ... and I'm rather looking forward to a pizza for my lunch.

A Farm Journal ~ from the 17th to the 27th May 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 ...

 A Farm Journal continues :~

1 - 17 Fine & hot fallow[in]g & open[in]g drills for manure

4 - 18 Ditto began to man[u]r[e] Farm gr[oun]d far side stack y[ar]d field 

5 - 19 Ditto ditto sow[e]d 6 cwt 1/2 salt & 1/2 Lawes with Farm y[ar]d

6 - 20 Ditto fin[ished] manuring & sow[in]g swedes

7 - 21 Very hot work[in]g this side of field for lints began to shear sheep - Cha[rle]s Wright hoeing beans  1st lot of Swedes & mangolds not much up yet except here & there a few too dry for mangolds & the field rather too stiff & lumpy - beans look well & wheat improved oats look well - 4 sturks on bottom bank

1 - 22 Fine

2 - 23 Ditto lead manure onto lints sow[e]d last lot of [word indecipherable] sheep shearing

3 - 24 Ditto Ditto

4 - 25 Fine day - men hoeing beans by hand - horses turned out - sold Jones & Gerrard 60 lambs to go 8 each went @ 23/- cut little pigs - 2/6 p[e]r litter - women pricking spudding thistles among wheat - sold Jones & Co 7 fat ewes @ 8d clipped - at 8am this morn[in]g the 25th my dear Wife was del[ive]r[e]d of a fine Girl * - doing well

6 - 27 Ditto weather set John Jones & Rob[er]t Rogers & Jos[eph] Hughes No. 3 beans to hoe @ 6/- p[e]r ac[re] (too much only worth 4/-) - women spud[din]g thistles in wheat & pull[in]g Ketlocks - Cha[rle]s Wright PJones & Shalcroft hoeing No 4 beans by day - Peter Davis off work - poorly one of his horses kicked him in the stomach - 12 sturks on bottom bank & 25 Hogs - a few potatoes up in field - Swedes & mangols [sic] come very slowly want rain - all Kinds of grain & feed up a little


* The 'fine Girl' would have been Florence Bowman.

Ticking away ~ Day 1101 ... three years today since diagnosis ...

Hard to believe but it's a fact. It is three years ago today that I was first diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and three years later I'm still around to talk about it.

There's a photo too, showing me just a few hours ago after enjoying a cup of coffee at a local garden centre.

I've managed to smile on this one as another photograph taken just a few days before showed a rather more serious face ~ not for any particular reason but probably just because sometimes I can look a bit miserable.

So, what's the state of play.

Well, I'm due for a couple of check-ups next week which will no doubt reveal more.

At present I can't walk more than a few yards without a zimmer [or safety walker as some of the health care professionals call it]. 

Besides a zimmer I also have :-
a wheelchair, just in case it's a longer journey I suppose;
a railing to help me up and down stairs ~ I managed to talk them out of putting in a stair lift. Not just yet ... please;
a seat to get into and out of the bath on. Before this was installed I hadn't had a proper bath or shower in weeks; 
a raised toilet seat as the original one is too low; and finally,
an electric powered reclining chair [to help me get up and down].

I still take a lot of tablets including Oxycontin and [as a back up and because they act quicker] Oxynorm. These are pain relief tablets ~ they aren't going to cure me. The morphine based tablets I had been prescribed originally didn't agree with me ~ they gave me a rash on the inside of both arms though the rash didn't itch.

I believe that I may have another dose of chemotherapy which may prolong things but I will know more after my visit next week. After that I'm not sure that there are many more options open to me. I'm not getting downbeat about it though.

I haven't been out for a walk for some weeks now and it is debateable whether I will go out for a 'real' walk ever again. I have however read much more and that is proving to be an acceptable subsitute.

I realise I may never walk along any of the beautiful paths I have wandered all my adult life. I used to wonder how I would cope with that. Well, so far, I seem to be coping surprisingly well ... and surprising myself in the process.



Footnote ~ the hawk-eyed amongst you may have noticed that 3 times 365 is not 1101. Even allowing for a leap year or two 3 times 365 is still not 1101. My system must have broken down somewhere ... and that's the way it will have to stay.