Foreword Combine began life as a pilot project delivered with young people from Shirebrook Academy (Bolsover) in Autumn 2010. At that time, Junction Arts’ primary focus was on rural participatory arts delivery. One of our key aims was to deliver partnership determined programmes and projects which were relevant and distinctive to participants, situation and place within the rural areas of the East Midlands. ‘Combine | Rural Life from an Urban Perspective’ (as it was then known) was a key project to deliver this aim. Working with young people from Shirebrook Academy we made a series of visits to Hill Top Farm in Ashover over the winter of 2010. As well as learning about traditional skills and exploring contemporary rural life, the young people (perhaps more importantly) were able to define their own sense of place and an awareness of the importance of their rural heritage. Fast-forward two years and we have just completed the workshops for a far bigger Combine: Farming Heritage | East Midlands project. The success of the pilot encouraged us to develop the project further and after attracting additional funding we’ve been able to roll Combine out across the whole East Midlands. The range of activities that have been delivered with young people across all six counties include: farm and cattle market visits, falconry, map-making, museum and record office visits, hedge planting, pork pie making, oral history collections, as well as engaging with traditional skills, including stone carving, greenwood skills, and wattle and daub construction. 4
Foreword For Junction Arts, Combine: Farming Heritage | East Midlands has been a flagship project because it encapsulates our innovative approach to rural participatory arts and creative heritage delivery. It provides a new generation with the opportunity to explore and interpret their historical identity through creative activities. It is also the first project that we have delivered regionally and has enabled the project team to successfully negotiate the challenges of delivering across a wide geographical area whilst creating a legacy of collaboration and multi-agency partnership. I’d like to thank all those participants, partner organisations, museums and archive offices, farms and local agencies who have contributed to the success of the project and especially to Jane who has driven this project from the start, and to Cora; they have both been instrumental in bringing Combine to it’s triumphant conclusion. Paul Steele | Managing Director | Junction Arts 5
Introduction Combine: Farming Heritage | East Midlands is an exciting creative heritage project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to capture and promote the people, places and traditions that define the region’s rich agricultural past. Focusing on six historic farms, one in each county, we brought together a unique mix of people to research, record and share these special histories with the wider public. Young people from each area visited farms, museums, archives and cattle markets, gathered oral histories and took part in traditional skills workshops. Finally, they worked with an artist to reflect on their discoveries and created a very special contemporary map of their county. Over a period of 6 months the Combine: Farming Heritage project has delivered 70 workshops; working with over 250 people across the 6 counties of the East Midlands. We have met many amazing people along the way, heard many wonderful stories, produced and discovered great images, uncovered valuable materials in the archives and museum collections, but more importantly, the young people have witnessed first-hand living farming heritage. Jane Wells | Project Coordinator | Junction Arts 6
Derbyshire Young people from Highflelds School in Matlock were our Derbyshire researchers. They visited the 16th century Manor Farm in Dethick, once owned by Sir Anthony Babbington, executed in 1586 for his attempted rescue of Mary Queen of Scots. Derbyshire is a county with a diverse landscape. The flatter land to the south lends itself to arable farming, whilst the Peak District is famous for its small hill farms. The owners of Manor Farm rear mules, sheep local to Derbyshire and Jacobs, an ancient breed. The young participants also visited the Derbyshire Record Office, the Old House Museum in Bakewell and took part in map-making workshops. An interesting day was spent at Bakewell Livestock Market where we found out about an old tradition known as ‘Luck Money’. It involves the vendor giving the purchaser money as a token of luck and as a thank you for buying the animals. This tradition can be observed in cattle markets all around the country. Dry stone walls have been used for centuries as field boundaries and are a familiar feature on the Derbyshire landscape. Our young participants spent a day with a skilled craftsman learning the basics of dry stone walling before building a stretch of wall using locally quarried limestone. 9
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Tithe Map of Dethick | Image courtesy of the Derbyshire Record Office
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Our Stories
There’s a phrase that I’ve heard farmers say that goes like this, ‘Never trust a bull in July,’ and many years ago, when I was about 12, my father was attacked by a bull. It nearly killed him and broke his leg and he was put in hospital. My mother was a remarkable lady, I said to her ‘Who ran the farm?’ and she said ‘I did, I milked 70 cows a day, twice a day’. Simon Groom, Dethick I was tippled out of a horse and cart when I was a little girl. I went with my dad and grandad to see some friends. My grandad and me stayed in the cart whilst my dad went in to see them and a steam engine went past, letting off steam. It was delivering coal and the noise frightened the horse and it tippled us out, I was frightened to death! Lucy Hunt, Tansley
Derbyshire
When I was in Y10 I interviewed a lady called Lucy at a residential home, and she told me that she was born and raised on a farm. The farm was a mixed farm (e.g.) dairy, cattle and sheep. She used to have horses instead of tractors because they didn’t have tractors then. The farm was Lower Pilsley Headland Farm. Her earliest memory of being on the farm was milking the cows and making butter. Jenna Kirk, Highfields School, Matlock
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Northamptonshire In Northamptonshire young people from The Kingswood School in Corby participated in Combine. They visited Home Farm in Laxton, originally built as a model farm for nearby Laxton Hall. During one visit the young researchers spent time exploring the landscape and rich wildlife surrounding the farm and found out more about the various farm buildings and their purpose, especially the role they played within the context of the model farm. Of particular interest was the hay safe, one of only two of its kind in the country and the tithe barn, thought to be about 600 years old. At the Northamptonshire Record Office, the students were given a tour of the building by an archivist who explained the many functions of an archive. After the tour they looked at a very special map of Northampton dating from 1632 and looked at items relating to the more general farming heritage of the county. They were fascinated by the word ‘mangel-wurzel’ and discovered it is a root vegetable grown for fodder. The young people also gathered oral histories, worked with an artist to create a new map and spent the day at Moulton College learning about the ancient craft of stone masonry. They each drew their own design on a piece of limestone before beginning the delicate job of carving it out using traditional tools. 17
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Our Stories
I can only remember the end of working with horses and it was very hard work. The horses had to be woken up and fed at least 2 hours before you expected them to start work. It meant someone had to get up and feed them about 5 o’clock in the morning so that they had enough energy to work all day. Someone had to walk behind the horse so if they were pulling a 10 inch plough you would have to walk 8 miles to plough just 1 field. I think people who say it was much better when horses were around are looking at things through rose coloured glasses. David Simpson My dad always wore a flat cap, but on holiday the flat cap came off, and there’s my dad with a brown face and a white forehead where his cap had been. You could always tell the workers on holiday because they’ve got this white forehead, so you could see as they walked along, the flat caps had stayed at home! Elizabeth Simpson
Northamptonshire
I was always on the farm when I was a little girl and I can remember being put in the hay rack or a trough to keep me out of the way. I could watch everything from there but not get knocked over by the sheep. As soon as I was old enough I would pick up the lambs, and their mothers, the ewes, would follow me round. Elizabeth Simpson
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Nottinghamshire Young people from The Dukeries College in New Ollerton were our Nottinghamshire researchers. They visited Bottom Farm in Laxton, which in common with every other farm in the village except one, is owned by the Crown Estate. Around the village you can still see the medieval Open Field system that operates a 3 year crop rotation. The Open Fields come under the jurisdiction of a Court Leet and Jury, a manorial court that ensures that the 3 year crop rotation continues and is well maintained. Whilst looking at a 1635 map of Laxton the students were interested to see a drawing of hawking. Under the guidance of an experienced falconer they were thrilled to have the opportunity to work with birds of prey and to find out more about this ancient skill. They learned how to handle the birds and about the specialist equipment. The Nottinghamshire explorers paid a visit to Bassetlaw Museum in Retford to look at their agricultural collection. Items relating to farming and the associated rural crafts are on display including agricultural tools and equipment used for trades including blacksmithing, milling and malting.
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Our Stories
When you live in the country midwifery is all part of the farming job. Cow, sheep, pig, wife, what have ya, it’s the same process, just in different forms! Bill Haigh, Laxton I farm in partnership with my brother. We are both semi retired so our farm is a share farm. The farm has been in the family for two generations but I don’t think it will be passed on, our children aren’t really interested. Farmers come from all over the country to Newark as it’s one of the best markets, along with Darlington. Mick Hardy, Lambley
Nottinghamshire
I’ve been farming all my life, arable with a few beef cattle. I think farming has got easier over the years, mainly because of the equipment that’s available now. It’s more lucrative to farm in Lincolnshire as they have such large fields, about 100 acres as opposed to the smaller fields in Nottinghamshire which are on average between 10-15 acres for grassland and 20-30 acres for arable. Also, in Lincolnshire the fields are flat and ours are hilly, so more difficult to plough. Frank Lee, East Stoke
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Rutland Young people from Casterton Business Enterprise College were our researchers in Rutland, England’s smallest county. They paid a number of visits to Home Farm in Great Casterton, an area with a long history of farming dating back to the Roman period. In the 1950’s archaeologists discovered an aisled barn and drying floor dating from c.AD290-310. The present owners of Home Farm undertake environmental conservation work, including reinstating historic hedgerows. The students spent a day helping out, looking at old maps to identify specific hedge locations and planting historic hedgerow species. A wonderful day was spent learning traditional woodworking skills. The participants tried hedge laying, willow craft, hurdle making and greenwood working. Throughout, they worked with traditional tools including a shave horse, a draw knife and a froe, an instrument used for splitting wood. To find out about how farming has changed over the years, our researchers talked to older people from Great Casterton and recorded their stories. They also shared their experiences of being involved in Combine, looked at archive photographs together and showed them the work they had done in their sketchbooks. 33
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Our Stories When I was growing up we used a horse and cart to go and collect the corn from the fields. Then we would take it back to the farm and make stacks. We would then thresh the corn. We had to use a horse and cart because there were no tractors. When I was 14 years old (68 years ago) tractors came about, though they are a lot different than how they are today. I had 200 hens on my farm and I used to have to collect all the eggs and then go round selling them at the door. Betty aged 82 years
Rutland
I remember when I used to look after the dairy and there was a brewery up the road; it would deliver used hot grain to us, and we would feed it to the cows and it warmed them up a treat, they only then suffered from cold feet! John Wyles I remember going to the dairy with a metal jug, and filling it with milk straight from the cow whilst it was still warm. Also to make the pigs fat we would feed them molasses. I would dip my finger in the molasses and suck on my finger for the rest of the day. Christine Prince
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Lincolnshire Our Lincolnshire researchers were members of the public from across the county. Many attended events visited by the Combine Road Show to make their contributions about Lincolnshire farming. Lincolnshire was at one time one of the main producers of agricultural machinery and is well known for its large scale arable farms. On Open Farm Sunday at Great Wood Farm in Boothby Pagnall, wonderful creative contributions to the Lincolnshire map were made by visitors of all ages. Supported by the project artist they worked in a variety of creative techniques and produced some beautiful work. Pupils from Monks Dyke School in Louth spent an exciting day learning traditional rural skills including weaving and spinning, and dying using natural ingredients. They ground corn, baked bread and helped to build a wattle and daub panel. On a visit to the Louth Cattle Market we spoke with staff past and present and to farmers about their lives and what they thought was special about farming in Lincolnshire. At Home Farm in Withcall members of the Louth U3A watched some rare archive film about farming across the East Midlands. This triggered some really interesting oral contributions that were written on the Combine story postcards. Members also had the opportunity to look at the extensive collection of farming machinery and tools in the Home Farm Museum. 41
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Louth Panorama by William Brown 1844-47 | Image courtesy of Louth Museum
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Our Stories
In the late 1970’s, as a young married woman, I had a job carrot topping in a barn. We used to have to tape the ends of our fingers to protect them and I earned 11p for topping 28lbs of carrots! Fern from Louth
Lincolnshire
My parents moved from Norfolk to Lincolnshire in 1954, buying a farm in the Bain Valley north of Horncastle. The land had been used for grazing sheep since time immemorial, but my father was certain it had great potential for arable farming: having been brought up on the prairie in Saskatchewan he was used to seeing potential! He proceeded to install tile drainage and deep-plough bringing up archaeological material from the Roman to mediaeval periods, and drill wheat and barley. Anxious to make the best of the ensuing crop he instituted a regime of ‘roguing’, forming all hands, me included, into a line across the field so that we could just touch fingertips , to walk the crop along the drilled lines of growing grain, pulling out any weeds, especially wild oats. I remember a local girl passing on the road shouting out, ‘Are ya ‘averin’?’ We were, but didn’t know it being unfamiliar with Lincolnshire dialect – ‘havering’ means pulling wild oats, from the same root as ‘haversack’. Jean Howard
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Leicestershire Young people from John Ferneley College in Melton Mowbray were our Leicestershire researchers. They visited Hall Farm in Brentingby, the Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office and took part in a greenwood skills workshop. On the farm they saw the preserved ridge and furrow grassland and the rich hedgerow network that is so characteristic of the Leicestershire landscape. They learned how the geology of the land has shaped farming throughout the county and about its connections to fox hunting and food production, particularly the world famous Melton Mowbray pork pies and Stilton cheese. Under the guidance of the curator at the Collections Resources Centre at Barrow on Soar, the young people went ‘behind the scenes’ and saw some of the important items that relate to Leicestershire’s agricultural heritage. At the Record Office they looked at the 1891 Census and a Parish Map from 1885 and found that very little had changed in Brentingby over the centuries. During the map-making workshop the young people took the opportunity to reflect on their experiences over the course of the project. Using a variety of artistic techniques to interpret their findings, they created a contemporary re-worked map of the area. 49
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Our Stories When the sun shines it’s a great life being a farmer, not so good when it’s raining though! I always thought it would be a good job being a Parson…only working one day a week, not seven! Farmer from Coalville
Melton Mowbray Cattle Market. I brought 3 steers to market today. They looked good, clean and tidy, it’s very important that they are clean. They made over £1000 each. It’s been a good day. Farmer from Leicestershire
Leicestershire
We farm in Ashby de la Zouch and bring our livestock here to Melton Mowbray to sell. We brought 80 spring lambs today. They’re about 4 months old, born in January this year. The auctioneer divides them into groups of 9 or 10 to sell, weighing roughly 40 kilos in total. They sold at about £90 each, down a little on last year. It’s not been a bad day overall. Father and son at Melton Mowbray Livestock Market
The things that make a day very satisfying is when you have had several calves born and they are all healthy. Seeing the young life come about, is very rewarding, and just getting the job done. Peter Pritchard, Farmer 55
Acknowledgements Combine: Farming Heritage | East Midlands was devised and delivered by Junction Arts | www.junctionarts.org Thank you to all those who took part in this project. A special thank you to Amanda Turner, Heritage Lottery Fund | Natural England | Danny Callaghan | Peter Hayman | Ian Wall | Anita Hollinshead | Kay Ogilvie, Full Circle Project at MACE | Rev Jo Saunders, Gt Casterton | Cathy Cooke & Nikki Wright, Derbyshire Eco Centre | Cathie Clarke, HeritageSkillsHUB | Trevor Wragg, Walls for the Future | Anthony Hammond | Craig Murphy, Moulton College | Peter Wood, Greenwood Days | Philip and Jacob Romaine-Buxton, Falcons at Laxton | Karen and Charlie Slade, Company of Artisans | Rebecca Sheldon, Derbyshire Record Office | Lynn Scarsbrook, Northamptonshire Record Office | Jeanette Overden, Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office | Chris Weir, Nottinghamshire Record Office | Anita Spencer & volunteers, Bakewell Old House Museum | Samantha Glasswell, Bassetlaw Museum | Emma Warren, Rutland County Museum | Laxton Heritage Museum and Visitors Centre | Fred Hartley, Leicestershire Collections and Resource Centre | Geoff Hill, Louth Museum | Theresa Workman, Museum of Lincolnshire Life and Gainsborough Old Hall Museum | Alison Clague, Charnwood Museum | Anne-Marie Knowles, Chesterfield Museum | Melton Carnegie Museum | Billy Dalziel, Corby Heritage Centre | Ron Knight | Bakewell Livestock Market | Newark Livestock Market | Melton Mowbray Livestock Market | Louth Livestock Market | Newlands Court, Gainsborough | Tansley House, Matlock | Henry Smith at Home Farm, Withcall, Lincolnshire | Great Wood Farm, Boothby Pagnall, Lincolnshire | Gilly and Simon Groom at Manor Farm, Dethick, Derbyshire | Elizabeth and David Simpson at Home Farm, Laxton, Northamptonshire | Richard Lamb at Home Farm, Gt Casterton, Rutland | Stuart Rose at Bottom Farm, Laxton, Nottinghamshire | Julia Hawley at Hall Farm, Brentingby, Leicestershire | Judith Smith | Mr Coxall at Casterton Business & Enterprise College, Great Casterton | Mr Allsobrook and Mr Briddon at Highfields School, Matlock | Mr Major at John Ferneley College, Melton Mowbray | Mrs Greenwood at The Dukeries, New Ollerton | Mrs Jacobs at Monks Dyke School, Louth | Mr Robertson at The Kingswood School, Corby | Dickinson & Morris, Melton Mowbray | Julia Cook, The Farming Life Centre, Buxton, Derbyshire. Images courtesy of Glassball, project participants, and art works courtesy of Danny Callaghan www.combinefarmingheritage.org | @COMBINEfarming Layiyt design by Cora Glasser Front cover image is of Northamptonshire participants exploring a hay meadow at Home Farm Back cover image is of a hay meadow at Hall Farm in Leicestershire Š 2012 Glassball, Junction Arts and all contributors | All rights reserved
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