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 ?
Hi Charlie hope things are good with you.You have some varied blogs,makes interesting reading.Fere!!not I will be back.
ReplyDeleteThank you Fere [Mere ?] ... I will look forward to your return and, yes, I'm feeling ok thank you.
DeleteI have always liked his "ditto weather" notations:-) Difficult to believe we've reached 1867 already!
ReplyDeleteYes, 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.
DeleteSturks, bosgins and breck cote?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what any of that means....
I am sure you are not alone River though I hope the compilation of your British 19th century agricultural dictionary is doing well.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, 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.