7. Never Despise the Agricultural Labourer

The following article appeared in the "Sussex Family Historian" - vol 7. No. 5. 5th June 1987. I feel it is very relevant to our family as it appears all the men, and even Sarah Anne Brook, were classed as Ag Labourers.

In a country district before the Industrial Revolution, Agricultural Labourers made up a large proportion of the population. Even as late as 1851, the Census in some areas will show what looks like a seventy or eighty per cent majority. If we realise that many of the wives and children would be similarly occupied whenever possible, not only at harvest time but for much of the year weeding and helping when the opportunity arose, we can See the importance of this very versatile-source of varied skills. It follows that it must be rare indeed for a Family Historian not to come upon one or more Ag Labs in the pedigree even if early documents give a name without indicating the occupation.

What, actually did an Ag Lab have to do? For a start, he had to help in keeping the land in good trim. On a large farm, some degree of specialisation would develop, with individuals consistently employed in the spheres in which they proved to be most skilled, but even here no section of work went on for the whole year and everyone had to be adaptable. On smaller farms the variety of work was inevitably spread more widely, with a smaller number of people taking a share in the same range of tasks. Ploughing was, and still is, a task needing great skill, as all who have tried it will agree. Then there was harrowing, and on some soils rolling. The skill of the sower determined the yield of the land, and even bird - scaring needed concentration and judgement, although this was regularly delegated to quite small children.

Tending and weeding a variety of crops ranging from grass and cereals, beans, brassicas, potatoes and root - crops to soft fruits and fruiting trees needed knowledge and skill to no ordinary degree. Then there was harvesting, with the scythe, sickle, spade and above all with skill, for the expertise here determinedly the yield witch could separate success from failure. On all mixed farms there was the hay crop, vital for keeping livestock alive over the winter until the return of spring brought new grass. Hay well cut, dried and stacked will last the winter through if there is enough of it, but badly prepared stacks will heat and take fire spontaneously. Then in the winter there was the threshing in the barns, and in it the trimming and skilled layering of hedges. All the year round there was herding and milking of cows, feeding of enclosed pigs, and herding of sheep, with the shepherds needing help at lambing time and at shearing. Itinerant labour had to be taken on at harvest and for shearing, and at the times the resident Ag Labs were key pivots, and for a while became captains of industry and leaders of men and women alike.

The farmer's wife was traditionally responsible for poultry, but she would need help with the brewing and with dairy produce. It was of course to the wives of the farm's Ag Labs that she turned for this help, and the work she could offer was eagerly welcomed. Nor was this all. There were fences to be maintained and mended, gates to be repaired and posts to be renewed. Roofing, whether of thatch, tile, or slate, needed patching after storms, and there was brick - work to be pointed or renewed, and additions to be made to farm and barn. Ditches had to be cleared and culverts kept open, drains to be laid. Farm roads and tracks had to be kept passable, and holes filled in and consolidated, while trampled mud around field - gates needed sand and straw added. Ponds had to be cleared, and on the chalk areas there were dew - ponds to be maintained or, if possible constructed.

In limestone and sandstone areas where natural stone roughly rectangular lay as obstructions in the fields, there were dry-stone walls to be repaired or built as field-boundaries, strong enough to stand up to weather and to resist cattle. Wider at the base, tapering towards the top, these had to be built solid without the use of costly cement. In granite areas where field boulders tended to be ovoid with rounded corners, such walls would only stand if the stones were bedded in mixtures of earth, sand, clay and cattle-dung, and then pointed with living grass and plants. In autumn, invading gorse, unwanted stubble and weeds had be set on fire in such a way that weed-seeds were destroyed before they could infect the land before the following year, while hedges coppices and buildings had to be effectively protected from the galloping flames.

A year on the land was hard work, with little respite or rest. Yet there were days of rain or frost when neither work nor pay were available. For these times, the Ag Lab stayed at home, helping with such tasks as peeling and preparing rush-lights, spinning and weaving wool, and with other household tasks. Many domestic articles were home made, from wood off-cuts and trimmings. Spoons, platters, clothes-props, clothes pegs, and even small harvest-barrels were made by those who had the necessary skills. Wooden trug-baskets and small stools were within the capabilities of many, while others could essay to make homely chairs and even larger Items. Floor rugs made from rags were quite usual, while thistledown cushions and pillows were by no means unknown. Pillows of chopped feathers were made, and from cottage gardens lavender, rosemary, balm, thymes and mint were dried. May cottages kept a pig, and there was the preparing and salting of bacon, and the preparation of other foods from this source. In terms of cash receipts, life for the Ag Lab was one of low rewards, but most farmers would either donate food from crops or supply it at low wholesale market prices, so that there were some invisible benefits to alleviate the hard life. Inevitably conditions varied from place to place and from farm to farm, and they changed with the passage off time.

But the picture was not one of unremitting gloom. A man recorded as an Ag Lab might in fact be working on his fathers or grand-fathers farm in early life, and he might progress to be recorded as husbandman or as a householder as he grew older, until on inheriting the farm he became a farmer, or even a yeoman if he owned the land as a copyhold, a virtual free hold. If he did well, and prices of agricultural produce always rose in the time of war, he might be able to retire for a few final years and see himself promoted to the status of gentleman. In later times, he might well be listed as a resident in a Directory produced by an enterprising publisher, and he might even live to see a later edition in which the "Private Residence" section had been renamed "Court Directory". An enterprising but misleading stationer in a near by town might even have provided him with a coat-of-arms to which he was not entitled, but he would not know this and would display the arms with pride. Progress of this sort was, of course, not common, but it was by no means impossible.

Pride apart, though, his real worth would lie in the wide variety of skills which had given him pleasure and satisfaction during his working life - never despise the Ag Lab.

NOTE; Thomas Brook was described as a "husbandman" at the baptism of his daughter, Elizabeth, in 1816, but in all records since hen he was described as a "Labourer".

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