‘Some little time after he started here (in Ipswich) an accident occurred through the bursting of a Furnace, which gave way and all the molten metal ran out and some of it ran on to some iron plates and cooled rapidly—of course much more quickly than that which ran on to the sandy ground of the foundry. When the metal had cooled down it was broken up and he observed that wherever it had run on to the iron plates it had changed its character; and the surface which had come immediately into contact with the iron plates was “chilled” and very hard and white in texture for quite a good way into the metal.
‘Mr Robert Ransome was a man of great observation and, in fact, was a natural engineer; and the idea struck him that the chilled metal possessed just the qualities for a good plough-share because the lower side being hard and the upper side soft, the friction of the upper soil would form a good cutting edge. Up to that time this class of Shares was always made in wrot. iron. This, in the year 1803, is believed to be the first application of chilling for any purpose.’
Later in the century George Biddell himself gained some fame for applying the same principle to the case-hardening of rails used on railway crossings.
After the invention of the chilled plough-share the firm became widely known as specialists in the making of agricultural implements; and at the first Royal Show at Oxford in 1839 they won the Royal Agricultural Society’s gold medal for their display of implements and machinery. They exhibited altogether six tons of goods—quite an amount for those days; for the material had to be carried on its hundred miles’ journey by teams of horses and wagons.
One of the landmarks in the history of plough-making was Ransome’s manufacture of their famous Y.L. plough with iron beam and handles. The design of this plough arose out of the complaint of one of their customers: no customer ever complained to better purpose, for the Y.L. plough was still being manufactured and sold in great numbers over a hundred years after its introduction in 1843; and it may be still be seen in use even today in some of the farms of East Anglia.
Another type of horse-plough Ransome’s made famous was the Newcastle series—RNE, RNF, etc. They are so called because they were originally designed to compete in the plough-trials at the Royal Agricultural Show at Newcastle in 1864. The Society had given notice before the Show that ‘prizes would be awarded to ploughs which reached a certain standard of excellence’. In addition to designing a series of new ploughs specially for the occasion, Ransome’s—acting on the theory that in ploughing the ploughman and the horses are at least as important as the plough itself—sought around for a skilled ploughman to join up with their selected team of Suffolk horses. In 1863 James Edward Ransome, another grandson of the founder, discovered James Barker, an Essex man who had a great local reputation as a ploughman. Ransome engaged him not only for the Newcastle trials but afterwards to attend plough-trials wherever they were held up and down the country.
About this time the firm was beginning a new policy: in previous years, during the railway boom, they had been so engaged in manufacturing railway material that the agricultural side of the business had been to a certain extent neglected. The appointment of the professional ploughman was the beginning of a new trend; for James Barker soon justified his engagement. The firm won five prizes at the Newcastle Show, and during the same year, fifteen out of twenty all-England prizes, all with the newly designed ploughs and the new ploughman. In 1865 they carried off twenty-one. For many years after this Barker was acknowledged as the champion ploughman of England; and he continued competing until 1879. During this period he won £2000 in prizes. After this date Ransome’s gave up the idea of competing, and Barker concentrated on coaching local men. His visits to ploughing matches in Suffolk became a great attraction. It was said at the time that ‘the farmers and labourers regarded with almost as much interest his grand team of Suffolk horses from the stables at Ipswich as his own matchless ploughing.’
The firm ceased to make horse-ploughs in 1948; and a few years later they gave up their stables. Although they did not compete in ploughing-matches after Barker’s time, they always kept a team of Suffolk horses and an expert ploughman to try out experimental designs of new ploughs and to demonstrate the merits of designs that had already been approved.
The head horseman of the Ransome’s stable kept a diary, and here is one of the entries from recent years:
‘7th November, 1934; Punch, when ploughing on 5.11.34 developed a slight lameness in the right foot. The following morning (6.11) I had the vet. down to the Works to see him. The farrier removed the shoe and found that the hoof had been pricked near the frog. This he cut open, cleaned and ordered bran poultices to be put on.
The vet. has seen him this morning and reports that the lameness is much better. (Signed) S. Hazell.’
By 1950 the Ransome’s stable of Suffolk horses had dwindled to a pair—the last in a long line. The last entry in the diary records what happened to them:
‘March 21st, 1950; Punch and Rex
These two horses were sold to Mr. M. I. Wood, Pearls Farm, Helmingham. (Signed) W. F. Garnham.’
It would be instructive to trace the steps by which the tractor has displaced the horse-plough in Suffolk. To do this fully over a fairly wide area is beyond the scope of the present work; but one or two related facts may be mentioned. James Edward Ransome introduced one of the first motor tractors in England in the year 1903; and during the following year the firm staged a demonstration of the petrol motor-tractor together with the first tractor plough on Rushmere Heath, near Ipswich. This demonstration was for the benefit of a certain Prince Schoenburg-Hartenstein. There does not seem to have been much use of the tractor plough in Suffolk before the 1914–18 war; but this period established the worth of the internal combustion engine beyond doubt; and the development of the tractor and the spread of tractor-ploughing quickened up enormously immediately after the war ended. In 1919 Ransome’s introduced the self-lift tractor-plough at the Tractor Trials held at South Carlton Lincolnshire; and in the early ’twenties the tractor found its way on to the Suffolk farms in increasing numbers.
William Cobbold of Battisford—then bailiff at Hitcham—first used a tractor in 1919: ‘It was a Sanderson, made at Bedford; and I used to work it with my thirteen-year old son.’ George Garrard who had a six-horse farm at Gislingham bought his first tractor in 1927: ‘I had an Emerson-Brantigan, a big owd thing that drew a three-furrow plough. There were only about half a dozen of them in the county.’ When he bought the tractor he sold two of his horses, working his land with four horses and the tractor. Later, he bought another tractor—a Standard Fordson, and sold another two horses. He kept two tractors and two horses right up to the 1939–45 war when, to a certain extent, the farm-horse came into his own again. This is what happened on George Garrard’s farm: ‘During the war one of my tractors broke down and it was difficult to get spare parts. So I say: “I got two tractors and one is no good, so I’m going to get some good horses”. I went to a sale and saw some Suffolks a-going at 150 guineas apiece. I saw an owd bor there and he say: “Don’t have ’em”. So I went hoom and on the way I met a man I knew. I told him about the horses and he say: “If you want a pair of good horses and don’t mind a-going back with me a little way, I can show you where you’ll find a couple o’ good uns.” He took me to a place where there were two Suffolks—one forty-five guineas and one forty-two—a gelding and a mare. They say the mare was two year old and had now been at work a-carting beet. I say: “I want something that can work,” so I bought the mare. I took her hoom and soon found she was a right good worker. But one day one of the men say to me, he say: “Thet mare is in foal”. “No!” I say. But he were right. I kept her in the yard and on light work; and one morning I went into the yard; and there was a beautiful little foal. The man I bought her from wanted to buy the mare and foal back for a hundred guineas; but I wouldn’t part with them. And a little later I bought another colt to run in with mine. For a long time I worked the horses along with the tractors:
I used the horses for ploughing the headlands after the tractors had ploughed the stetches; and for finishing-up, as we called it. We used to plough the last two furrows in the stetch with the horses so that the tractor-wheel wouldn’t go on land that already been ploughed. In the heavy owd land where I was, the tractor wheels can very easy form a hard pan—a hard layer of mud that you wouldn’t be able to break up till the following winter. I sold the colts; and then I sold the two horses in 1953—they went to the knackers. They brought in sixty guineas each, much more than I paid for ’em.’
As this account indicates the tractor gained ground very quickly after the last war; and during the early ’fifties the tractor-plough ousted the horse-plough from most of the farms in Suffolk.
1 Reminiscences of George A. Biddell (Ransome; Sims and Jefferies: MS. in Archives).
5
Outside Jobs
In addition to his work about the farm the horseman, not infrequently, went with a wagon and a team of horses on an ‘outside job’. He acted, in fact, as a carrier or a wagoner. One horseman remembers taking pigs twelve miles’ distance into Ipswich; also loads of wool after a sheep-shearing. He drove three horses in his wagon—two shaft-horses and a trace-horse; and he got half-a-crown outside allowance for the day. But he had to stable his horses out of this. Stabling meant just putting up the horses, as he took fodder with him in the wagon. The price was fourpence for each horse. Therefore, he had one-and-sixpence—at the most—left for his own meals; and considering that on occasions such as this he got up much earlier than usual and did not return until well after his normal finishing-time, he needed the money for sustenance and compensation for the extra hours he worked. ‘You didn’t have many spare pence then. If, when you were in the town, you treated yourself to a hair-cut, you’d probably have to go without your usual pint.’
One of the inns at Ipswich used by the wagoners was The Rose and Crown. Each wagoner unharnessed his horses and placed them in the stable until they were needed: if the stables were full he threw a few sacks over the horses’ backs and tethered them, leaving them with a nosebag each to feed from. At this particular inn, the wagoners living north of Ipswich sometimes arranged a little sweepstake amongst themselves for the return journey. They clubbed together and collected half-a-crown—as a prize for the first team to get to the Barham Sorrel Horse, an inn about five miles’ distance along the Norwich road. Arthur Chaplin has described some of his carting jobs from Stowupland Hall: ‘We used to go into Stowmarket quite often to take wheat to the railway station or barley to the maltings. We usually did two journeys a day into Stowmarket; and I always schemed to get the first load loaded up the night before, if I could. Then I got away early in the morning. But sometimes this couldn’t be done and we were late starting and late finishing with our second load. When we were taking loads of corn from the farm we got fourpence a day journey money. With this you were able to have something in the town with your bait. I aimed to have my elevenses in town and to have a pint o’ beer to go ’long with them. We got no allowance for loads home. For instance, when we went empty to Stowmarket to fetch pig-meal or oil-cakes from the station we got nothing. The farmer gave us an allowance only on what he sold. But he were a fair employer, Henry Fairfax Harwood—he were a bachelor. He paid his men thirteen shillings a week; and at that time the usual wage was twelve.’
This farmer had another estate at Tuddenham Hall, a few miles farther east; and an account of the carting jobs between the two holdings of Stowupland and Tuddenham brought out a very ancient agricultural practice. This is the exchange of seed between one type of land and another. Gardeners of the old school in Suffolk rarely buy fresh seed. They grow their own. They pick out a selection of the seed—broad beans or peas, for example—and preserve them as seed for the following year. But they will not do this indefinitely. The stock of seed, they maintain, will deteriorate if sown constantly on the same land. Therefore they have a practice of exchanging seed amongst themselves, preferably with someone in the next parish. Robert Savage, the Blaxhall shepherd, once gave the present writer some gardening advice in his usual direct language, and described the custom incidentally: ‘Don’t you pick any of your beans off one end of the row. Let a few plants grow and pick the best off ’em for seed about September time. You bin a-dewing that? Right. But you can dew thet too often. You want to farm ’em out next year. You give me some on ’em; and I’ll get my Arthur to plant ’em down thar on the heavy land at Farnham. Then he can give you some of the seed back when he’s grown a crop. That’s how I go on. You can keep the seed up here on this light owd land too long. It goes back. But dew you farm it out now and then on the heavy land, you won’t go wrong.’
Similarly, seed-corn was exchanged at the beginning of the century between the farms at Stowupland and Tuddenham for the same reason. ‘Seed from the dealers was very expensive. But you could grow your own corn if you didn’t keep the same strain on the land all the time; if you exchanged it now and again, it kinda renewed itself.’
Thomas Tusser seems to have known of the practice. Under August’s Husbandry he has:
Once harvest dispatched get wenches and boys
and into the barn afore all other toies;
Choiced seed to be picked and trimly well fy’d1
for seed may no longer from threshing abide.
Get seed afore hand in a readiness had
or better provide, if thine own be too bad:
Be careful of seed, or else such as ye sow
be suer at harvest, to reap or to mow.
And Dorothy Hartley, Tusser’s editor, quotes from the thirteenth century Rules for the management of a landed estate. These are believed to have been written by Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, but a native of the county of Suffolk:
‘Chaunge your seede every yere Myghelmas, for it shall be more advayle for you to seede your londes withe seede that growe on other mennes londis then withe seede that growe on your owne lande.’
John Worlidge,2 the seventeenth-century writer on husbandry, also commends the practice:
‘For we perceive that in the same Land one sort of Seed will thrive where another will not, according to the Proverb, One Mans Meat is anothers Poison; and that any sort of Grain or Seed will in time extract and diminish such Nutriment that it most delights in. Which is the cause that our Husbandmen do find so great an Advantage and Improvement by changing their Seed, especially from that Land which is so often tilled which they call Hook-land into Land newly broken; and from dry, barren and Hungry Land to rich and fat Land; also from Land inclining to the South, to Land inclining to the North & e contra; all which produce a good Improvement.
‘As Cattle that are taken out of short, soure, and bad Pasture, and put into good sweet Pasture, thrive better than such that are not so exchanged. After the same manner it is with Trees removed out of bad Ground into good; all which are manifest signs, there there is some particular thing, wherein each Seed delights: which if we did but understand, we might properly apply it, and gain Riches and Honor to ourselves; but because we are ignorant thereof, and are content so to remain, we will make use of such Soils, Dungs, Composts and other Preparations and Ways of Advancement of the Growth of Vegetables, as are already discovered and made use of….’
But Robert Bakewell, the eighteenth century Leicestershire breeder, quoted an incident of a kind that may have induced farmers to exchange seed among themselves: ‘I will not dispute with you on the propriety of changing seed neither do I profess myself to have had much Experience in that Business, but I have been told a Person sold his Barley to a merchant about 20 miles from the Place where it grew and made a practice for many years of having a small quantity from the said merchant by way of change—the Farmer attended the putting up of his own Barley and lost his sleeve Button, in sowing what he had from the merchant the Button was found—Excellent Change.’3
Arthur Chaplin recalls taking loads of seed for exchange on many occasions: ‘Whenever I had this job I had
to get up at three o’clock in the morning. As the horses were going on the high-road they had to have a proper grooming: they had to be braided up, the mane and the tail plaited with bast4 and coloured ribbon. I’d be away from the farm as soon as I could; and I’d be at Barham Sorrel Horse by half-past six—twenty-to-seven time, and I’d have a pint and some bait. Then I’d be off again without much loitering. It was the dark time o’ the year usually, and I had to have the old candle-lamps; but as soon as I left the Horse and got off the high-road into the side lanes, I put out the old lamps and bunged ’em into the back o’ the wagon. We carried on then in the dark: no one was about. We come back loaded up and reached hoom about six-thirty at night. It were slow going. The road were the old stoon roads, made up with flints that they’d picked off the fields; and you had to be some careful if something passed you and you pulled into the side. If you had a big load and you pulled in too close to the hedge, like as not you wouldn’t be able to get out. It were a long day, but we got two shillings extra for this special job o’ “changing seed”.’
One other ancient practice that was kept up at Stowupland until recent years was the payment of glove-money at harvest. Arthur Chaplin has recounted that an item of the harvest contract between the farmer and his workers, before the 1914–18 war, was Glove-money 2s. 6d. Its purpose was to pay for the gloves that the reapers wore to protect their hands from the thistles in the corn. Tusser recommended that the Harvest Lord and his reapers should be similarly gloved. But at that time the farmer actually presented the gloves to the reapers; and even at the end of the eighteenth century this present had not yet been commuted for a money payment. Sir John Cullum of Hawstead recorded in 1784:5
The Horse in the Furrow Page 5
