Sid talks about his life on farms working with horses before, during and after the Second World War. He missed the life with them when mechanisation came in and he needed to drive a tractor. I left school when I was 14. I was only a little old tot. I lived in the council houses […]
Agriculture & Farming
Land girl, bibles and the civil service (1938-1951)
Irene recalls her time in a bible factory, driving a tractor and working for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Married to a sailor My husband was at sea most of his life. He joined the Navy when he was fifteen and was on a training ship. His father was in the Navy, grandfather in the Navy, […]
Life in the Forest and on the Land (1950s-1990s)
Kevin’s grandfather worked as a warrener in the battle area, his father at Lynford Hall which was used by American servicemen, and he himself for the Lands Branch in Forestry, looking after the grounds, forestry, rivers, churches, boundary fences and military camps of the area. After a brief interlude working in the Thermos factory, he […]
Lincolnshire Farm Labourer (1957-1990s)
In 1957 Doug’s family were living in a tied cottage on a farm in Lincolnshire. Agricultural labour was a reserved occupation and labourers did not have to go into the forces. Farm work was poorly paid and families were reliant on the farmer. Doug worked on the farm until the farmer made many of his […]
Memories of Sheringham and Overman, Seed Merchants (1950s-1990s)
Peter grew up on the Norfolk coast at Brancaster. After studying agriculture and horticulture, in the early 1960s he joined Sheringham and Overman’s agricultural seed merchants firm in Fakenham as a bookkeeper. He describes changes in the seed business which diversified from supplying local farmers, who themselves grew herbage seed, to include one of the […]
My varied life – Bevin Boy, herring fishing, agriculture and reed cutting (1940-2019)
Bernard had a varied career based around the Stalham, Hickling area. He was a Bevin Boy, worked in the fishing industry out of Great Yarmouth, cut reed and sedge and did many other jobs. Early days in farming I started work at 14 in 1940 and I worked at the nurseries, or greenhouses – whichever […]
Side by side on the land: Riding the binders, cutting the corn – David (1936-1987)
David and his twin brother John began working on the farm in 1936, at the age of 14. It was a hard life but a good one. Early days Our first job, when we left school in 1936, was at the Murton Webbs in Knettishall carting sugarbeet. We biked eleven mile out, eleven mile home […]
Side by side on the land: Riding the binders, cutting the corn – John (1936-1989)
John and his twin brother David began working on the land at the age of 14 in 1936 and carried on until the late 1980s. My first job, in 1936, was at Murton Webb’s in Knettishall in Suffolk. We biked the way from Kilverstone to Knettishall which was eleven mile, and eleven mile home and […]
Survival to Success (1965-2000s)
A youth in agriculture – later life in the city. Alice tells us about her interesting and varied life, from shepherding and selling double glazing, to house clearances and pea harvesting. I was born in Norwich in 1950 and when I was five my father decided that we would move north, streets paved with gold […]
The Assistant Farmer (1936-1968)
David’s family were tenants at Old Hall in Colney. In farming those days there was a good social life. He was on farms, and then travelled around with the Ministry of Agriculture. I came to Colney on October 11th 1936 when my family gave up Manor Farm Kirby Bedon where I was born and we […]