Dear Sar,
Thank-ye kindly for printing my email last month and I will try an have a wud along with-ya agin when I can.
The month (October) started suffin wet & it were a job on the garden with it bein so dawby. The Missus she get suffin savige if I start a dragen mud indoors so now I ha’a leave my old boots in the shud.
The rain ha made it wet for them a getten the old sugar beet orf but they tell me they arnt in no hurry as them old beet are a still a’growin & with them big machines on them floatin tyres they can clear 30 to 40 acres a day what ever the weather. Thas different from when I started a werkin on the land. three on us with 2 trailers and a single row harvester ha a scrap about to clear an acre a day.; When I went to a Farmin College in 1960 they were still a teachin us how to knock & top beet by hand & we ha’a take a test a doing it. You were given a bit’o beet 4 rows acrors by 2 chain(44yds) long. You ha’a pull em ood beet out’a the ground, knock the soil orf & lay em in rows, then come along with yar beet hook,cut the tops orf & hull the beet inta little heaps ready to be forked onto a cart. I remember I got 20 out’a 20 for style. I reckon that was cos I was left handed & the master who was a markin us was right handed &he dint know if I was a doin the job right or not.
The other day I drawed up to the malenium green with my Grandson, my hart han’t them old trees & bushes shot up, some on em look as if they want trimmen out abit , I hope there are some youngans in the village who can do this as it int any good a leavin nature to itself, yer got to give her a hand how an agin. Thas like when a new vica who found his new chuch yard with roses a growin round the chuch door & the grass all mown short said to the verger “what beauty God can create in his acre”. Huh said the verger, yew oughter seen what that were like afore I come, and th’Almighty had it on his own.
Well I must close now cos jack frost a left his calling card this week an I want to get some ‘o my tender plants in’t the greenhouse afor he call agin.
Fare ye well & do you keep a troshin.
The Boy Tom
Category: Archives
Missing Month
Missing Month
Well we have started a ploughin a furra across 2011. Durrin the year the old plough will tun up some things what we are pleased to see & there will things we will wish had stayed buried.
I had suffin tun up the other day what I din’t want, an old Rat got inta my green house. My hart that made a mess in there afor I got it out. I was allus told that God put every creature on this here earth for a purpus. When I get to meet the Almighty I am goin to have a wud with him about why he give us Rats, if I can I’ll let you know what he say.
Nearly every day I walk along the footpath twixt Caulde Springs & the Norridge Rood to get my peaper. One morning a’for Christmas I met a couple of Mawthers who had come out from Norridge and were a followin a footpath walk what had been printed in the EDP. I stopped & had a mardle along with um & they say t’me what a lovely village Carbrooke is, so quiet & peacefull & how good that is to see the footpath a’bein used. The Council trimmed it back last year but I wonder who will be a’doin it this year cos them at County Hall & Breckland recon they are short o’ money. If they arn’t a goin to keep the footpaths trimmed back is this suffin our Parish Council can take on?. I have read in this here New Penny News that they have got a shillin or two sittin in the bank.
Well I have finished my fourses now so I had better find suffin to do a’for the Missus see I am still a sttin here.
Fare ye well t’gether and do you keep a troshin.
The Boy Tom
Missing Month
Missing Month
Missing Month
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The Boy Tom – May 2011
Missing Month
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The Boy Tom – June 2011
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The Boy Tom – July 2011
Missing Month
A time you read this they should be a gettin near t’ the end o’harvest. I an’t a goin t’say any thing about this year’s harvest cos the young master from the Hall will b’a writin about that.
I ha bin a thinkin about the fust harvest I did ,that were about fifty five year ago, m’father wont ha me a warkin a’long a him so I got a harvest job with a little farmer up the road. Mother din’t mind me a goin there cos he were a ‘chapel’ man so I wont hear any swear wuds.
Although combines were a getitin about this farmer still used a binder. arter that started cutting a field you ha’a walk round a’pickin up the sheaves & shock um up. thas a standin the sheaves on their butt ends and little way apart and leanin the head ends agin each other so that looked like the letta V bottom way up. you put four pairs of sheaves t’gether so that looked like a tent with both ends open. that were so the wind could blow though & help dry the straw. Barley was the worst to shock up cause them old barley awns got every where and I mean every where, my hart that made you suffin scratch. When I got home at night arter shocking up barley I ha’a wash all over t’get rid on um, there wern’t no showerin in them days and the old tin bath only cum out on a Saturday night arter father had filled the copper w’water from the well & lit the fire underneath t’heat it.
Arter the barley ,oats & wheat had bin cut & shocked up the ha’a stand in the field t ripen, they recon they (the Sheaves) ha’a hear the chuch bells twice afor you could think about a cartin them t’the stack, cos if that rained they ha’a stay in the field until they dried out.
When we started a’cartin the sheaves t’the stack the farmer I were a warkin for had two harvest wagons, one were pulled by a little Allis Charmers tractor & the other by a hos, there were another boy a warkin there who were a year older than me so he driv the tractor & I got the hos. My job was to lead the hos twix the rows of shocks so the men could load the sheaves on t’the wagon, arter they had cleared the shocks each side o’the wagon and a’for I started leadin the old hos forad I ha’a shout ‘hold-gee’ that so the man on the load knew I were about t’move on, arter m’ fust day a doin that m’mother recon I kept a shoutin out hold-gee in m’sleep. When the wagon was full I ha’a lead the hos t’the stack and unload the wagon either direct on’t the stack or when that got higher on’t the elevator. You ha’a put the sheaf onta the elevator the right way round and at the right speed du the man on the stack who were a’feedin the man buildin the stack would soon start a’shoutin at yer.
Harvests ha cum a long way since then, In the 1980’s I were lucky enough to drive one o’the fust combines what cum inta the country that were fitted with a computa and were connected t’one of them saterlite things what whiss around in the sky. Harvest is a lot easier than that were fifty five year ago. Some folks say harvest ent like the good old days & we ort’a bring um back. Them folks what say that ha never had’t shock up barley all day or ha’a carry 18 stone (112kg) sacks o’wheat on their back.
I ha got t’go now cos the Missus asked me a’while ago t’get some spuds & carrots out’a the garden so she could cook um for dinner, If I don’t start a scrappin about thas likely I won’t get any dinner t’day.
Fare ye well t’gether & du you keep a’throshin.
Missing Month
Dear Sar
That were very nice to read whot you said in the NPN about us whot speak proper Norfolk. there arnt s’ meny on us about now for several reasons. When I went to school in the 1950s there wer a lot on us whot spoke Norfolk cos our fathers warked on the land. Now acors the farms are bigger with huge fields & they dont want s’meny men to drive them gret old tractors. A lot of folks have moved into the county from away & hent been here long enough to lean Norfolk. Our children go away to finish their education, one o’our boys he went to Hull University for 3 years & when he drawed back hom he was a usin sum Yorkshire wuds, he ha hed them knocked out of him now cos he werk in a big office up the city.
My Missus is a Norridge mawther & she talk different, althouth we hev a been ploughin the same furrow for the last 40 odd years she still say things to me I dont understand, although I dosnt tell her.
If you & your missus ar a hevin trouble with some of our wuds I reckon there are still one or two on us in the village who could help you out.
I must close now cos as the weather is fair I want to tricolate my old shud up afor winter set in.
Fare ye well t’gether & do you keep a troshin,
The Boy Tom
(A Carbrooke resident)
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Heritage Film ‘Taster’
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A few shots taken in the church, where we met with Ben from Nimble to get the film ‘rolling’
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It was a busy day for ‘Ben’ at Nimble, as he continues filming for the documentary style film of Carbrooke, in Carbrooke Church and on Carbrooke Village Green.
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