I'll start by apologising to Miki at Farms on my Bookshelf blog for blatantly borrowing her idea!
This is the author in the 1980's on the back of his 3rd book "Green Lane Farm". He was born in 1897 in Norfolk and won a scholarship to The Paston School.
About half of the land was sold off many years ago and the fields still owned by the farm are let out to neighbouring farmers. They still use the buildings (some probably go back to the thirties) and the part of Barn Meadow which is closest to the house is now a garden.
I asked the owner if any of the fields owned by the farm still have the same names and she said Dumpling, Little and Big Smithers, Lower Riding and Garbage are still the same. They also still own the little bit of land by the pond which is "The Stackyard" - and you can see the straw-stacks on the map Over the years Nettice has become Neathouse and High Riding has become Home Riding. I love the fact that farms in the past always named their fields - this would be in the days when there were farm workers who would need to know where they were being sent to work. (When we got the deeds to the smallholding we found it had been built in 1955 on a 5 acre field called "Far Biggins" - part of a huge estate)
Of Steward's three books the earliest is the best - but gets no mention in the later books. It's full of Suffolk words and phrases and details of the way farmers worked during the war. On the day that Italian Prisoners of war come to pull sugar-beet on the farm. Old Sam remembers the earlier war days as he patrolled the lane with his shotgun looking for enemy parachutists.
"A rum night....planes goin' about in a hurry......dussent show a light, an' there was the ol' mare a-foalin'"Sugarbeet was often grown during war time and just as now the weather could be a problem
"When you're growin' sugarbeet they want to be orf the land by th' end o' November, Du that awnt do to grow 'em at all"
How many tales from the books are true? In his biography he says that he took three local villages and mixed them together and "Old Nart" one of the Suffolk characters in the books, was made up of several people he knew. So the map of the The Farm Down the Lane might be the only thing that was accurate! He was definitely more of a journalist than a farmer.
You certainly have some interesting books, Sue! Do his books come with an index or translation of the Suffolk dialect?
ReplyDeleteMost of the books are written in normal English! Just some of what the old "boys" say is in Suffolk dialect and no translation needed for me!
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ReplyDeletewhat a lovely tale told Sue. The naming of fields, 'Starvation Field' I remember from Somerset gave the landscape a personality. Reading a book with dialect at the moment but I can skip it as well, the author also writes in proper English!
Yes most of these books are not dialect but it's easy for me to read and understand the little bits of dialect - I've grown up with it!
DeleteThis brought back poignant memories of our farming days Sue - almost all of our fields had names and when David and I married in 1993 his father, who was in his nineties still pottered on the farm. He and David used to still call the fields by their names - they used to translate when talking to me about where they wantd their even o clock flasks bringing.
ReplyDeleteWhen we divided up our 4 acre field at the smallholding we had names for the paddocks- makes a conversation much easier. Colin and I could never agree on - if the "top" of the meadow was furthest away or nearest the house. I said furthest away he said nearest!
DeleteWell, I think there is a Dutch expression that says thst good ideas are there to be copied! Anyway, you've given me a new author for my list!
ReplyDeleteI think I've heard somewhere a saying "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery!"
DeleteIts good to know this has made an idea for your shelves too
How lovely. The style of those maps reminds me of the map at the front of the Milly Molly Mandy books - do you remember them?
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I didn't come across Milly Molly Mandy until I worked in a library - I had a book deprived childhood!
DeletePlease be assured that farmers in the present day still name all their fields.
ReplyDeleteThat's good to know. I know some farmers just use the O.S. field number in their GPS systems and on board tractor computers.
DeleteOn official documents it is necessary to use OS field numbers, but in the farm kitchen and the farm map on the wall fields all have informal names. We used to have the farm map kept behind the cupboard in the kitchen for crop planning used every year, drawn by my brother. All the fields had the same names as those used in the 1920s by grandfather. The fields are still named by the big people who bought the farm although the manager changed some to suit him and his men, but they are still named.
Deletehave you ever read Hedingham Harvest? it was a Lincolnshire thinly veiled tale about the village my father grew up in
ReplyDeleteI've not read that book, have heard of it and assumed it was about Castle Hedingham in Essex!
Delete"When you're growin' sugarbeet they want to be orf the land by th' end o' November, Du that awnt do to grow 'em at all" I can imagine that slightly differently in my uncle's Yorkshire farmer's accent.
ReplyDeleteCan you say it in Yorkshire dialect?
DeleteIt strikes me that in current times, Mr. Steward would have been a blogger! Even then there was a need to get it all down, the minutiae of the days going by. I can understand completely why you couldn't bring yourself to part with them.
ReplyDeleteSending a weekly piece to the newspapers is much like blogging I guess - although it would last a lot longer in print.
DeleteHow lovely those books must be to read - the history of just one small farm, but kept for posterity. He lived to a ripe old age didn't he, and did well with his life.
ReplyDeleteThe farm which surrounded us at our old home had named fields too (most of them in Welsh of course, apart from Lime Kiln Field and "our" field which we brought with the house and that was the Kitchen Field. Here all the names on the 1841 Tithe Map are in Welsh but I doubt any are much remembered now. Mind you, the three brothers who farm above us have been on that farm since their grandfather bought it 100 years ago so I am guessing all their field names are still known.
Unpronounceable field names then!
DeleteFun post, Sue! I love the detailed map.
ReplyDeleteBooks with maps are a treat.
DeleteYour books on farming are real treasures. Farming history is fascinating to me. Naming fields seems both practical and very useful. I love the way hedges, stone walls and fences divide the fields. My property was once farmed and there are very old 3 foot wide stone walls dividing the acreage into fields. The fields are now all forested. Nature always fills a void.
ReplyDeleteAll of our fields have names. They have numbers for the province to keep track of them.
ReplyDeleteThis brings back some memories. Both my grandparents farmed in Suffolk during WW2. Fields had names, many of which my father can remember. The largest on the farm near Beccles was the London field. My great grandfather used to buy worn down hackney cab horses from London, feed them well and rest them for a year before selling them back at a profit. A little bit of heaven for them in a miserable life I would think. The land is now farmed by my cousin. I must ask him if the names are on any papers.
ReplyDeleteMy sister lives on a small holding with named fields in Herefordshire, one is called the Plock. My Mum was part of the Land Army that farmed the fields during the war. She is 94 now.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on a dairy farm (120 acres) and my father had different names for each field. Each cow had its own name as well :)
ReplyDeleteThat's quite the story you shared. I enjoyed reading it. Megan and I have been watching "All Creatures Big and Small" on PBS. I remember waiting the older one when Phil and I were living in Felixstowe years ago!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Sue-sounds right up my street and reminds me of Akenfield. Have you read those? I just got a copy for my birthday and can't wait to get started!
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived at Jointers Farm all of the fields of his 600 acres had very old names, named for various reasons at the time and as it had been in Roberts family for generations he told us all the reasons for the naming them, it was fascinating stuff.
ReplyDeleteI love old hand-drawn maps of villages and farmland.
Thank you for sharing. I suppose he was worried about being sued or something, or perhaps mixing stuff up made a better story. It's still all fascinating.
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