By Victoria Evans, Searchroom Archivist
With Spring just beginning, farms across the country will be abuzz with preparations for new life and new crops. Looking to just one collection that documents farm life, we will be delving into East Harting Farm (AM 1134) which was farmed by William Lory Hosking from 1930 to until his passing in 1979. The extensive diaries that he kept cover 1950 to 1977 but today will be taking a peek inside the diary from 1951, specifically, what happened during the month of March.
Hosking kept a detailed note of the weather everyday throughout March and, as you can imagine, the unpredictability of it is all too familiar. A classic range of frosty mornings leading to cold drizzly rain and, before you know it, the next day will be bright sunshine but paired chilly strong winds.
As well as the weather being recorded, Hosking also kept comprehensive notes on what everyone did on the farm on the day-to-day. The kind of activities that caught my eye were how they were preparing for new crops. It appears they were picking the last of the cabbages and then began spreading manure across the fields. Once this was done, planting began! On Monday 12 shallots were planted, and then on Tuesday 20 onions, peas, carrots and lettuce were planted too.
Garland N18836 – Cabbage cutting
It is also of note that the farm was consistently carting silage which, from looking up online, is fed to cattle and sheep. Another consistent part of farm life was milking the cows every day. Hosking kept note of how much milk was collected each day and this seems to average out to at least 30 gallons a day.
Cutting a heavy crop of silage with a binder: tractor at Hermongers, Rudgwick, 1927
Another activity that caught my attention was the arrival of lambs. On Wednesday 14 two ewes each had a lamb each and then on Friday 16 another lamb was born. It is quite the stereotypical Spring sight to see fields filled to the brim with precious lambs bounding around!
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West Sussex Record Office 