Agricultural Labour - Increased mobility and gangs.
Agricultural Labour - increased mobility and increased concern over child labour and the employment of women. The increased mobility of...
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Andrew Elsden - exploring stories, tales , rural and social issues past and present as I see them and sharing useful information.
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Sep 28 min read
Agricultural Labour - May Hirings
In May 2019 a meter high statue was unveiled in Hall Place, Spalding commemorating the times when Spalding had a May Hiring Fair where...
Aug 3015 min read
Geese and Gosherds
“A Fenman’s dowry, threescore geese and a pelt.” This saying is an indication of the economic importance to many fenmen of geese and...
Aug 264 min read
From Marsh to Fen and Field - Robin Harmstone
One of the great difficulties that farmers to this day experience is the supply of water. A 21 inch average with many years markedly...
Aug 234 min read
From Marsh to Fen and Field - Andrew Sharp
In the graveyard at Gedney Hill churchyard is a modest gravestone that due to the ravages of time and growth of moss cannot quite be...
Aug 196 min read
From Marsh to Fen and Field - George Wallet
On 25th July 1766 The Derby Mercury carried the following notice: “To all who are Lovers of Nature’s wonderful productions. There is come...
Aug 1623 min read
From Marsh to Fen and Field - Albert Seaton
In 2007 my late father-in-law John Wright pulled some old farm diaries out of his shed to show me. He allowed me to borrow them and I...
Aug 129 min read
From Marsh to Fen and Field - Fred White
In 1991 I gave a talk to Long Sutton Friendship Club about the history of wildfowling in the area. Afterwards I was asked if I could meet...
Aug 97 min read
From Marsh to Fen and Field - Stuart Hay
“There is no habitat in Lincolnshire which can truly be described as natural unless it be the sandy and muddy foreshores of the coast....
Aug 53 min read
Skaters
In 1986 I was sat in Spalding Gentlemen’s Society when the then President of the Society, Bob Whiston told me that when he was a child...
Aug 24 min read
Freiston Shore - the forgotten resort of the Wash part 3
In January 1824 the Freiston coastguard experienced no small success: “Last week in Lincoln Deeps, as a detached party belonging to the...
Jul 2920 min read
Freiston - the forgotten resort of the Wash Part 2
What made Freiston Shore so popular? If we look at the various activities there are a few factors that may have influenced this, but they...
Jul 2612 min read
Freiston Shore – The Forgotten Resort of The Wash. - Part 1
It is perhaps hard to imagine as you wind down the narrow roads approaching Freiston village and then a little further, two miles, to...
Jul 2216 min read
Fishing from the Coast to River and Fen
Sturgeon Sturgeon are almost never seen in UK waters either in the sea or inland. However, occasional non-native sturgeon species get...
Jul 198 min read
The Linehams at Fosdyke
Perhaps the most famous fishing family from the Wash are the Linehams of Fosdyke who have made their lives from the sea as fishermen and...
Jul 156 min read
Decoys - part 3 Friskney and Wainfleet decoys The Skeltons and the Williams decoymen.
DECOYS AROUND FRISKNEY AND WAINFLEET The decoys of this area provided great interest yet by the time Oldfield published his History of...
Jul 1327 min read
Sailors and Fishermen and the ports of the Wash and Fens
It is possibly hard to imagine nowadays, but the Wash and the inland waterways leading from the Wash provided key channels for trade and...
Jul 128 min read
Decoys - part 2 notes on more Lincolnshire Decoys
DOWSBY DECOY - “……….towards Sleaford, we soon get to another group of six old Decoys, all within three miles NE of Dowsby, the most...
Jul 816 min read
Decoys - part 1
Most of us are familiar with the word Decoy referring to a wooden, or plastic model of a duck or pigeon, but in this case the word Decoy...
Jul 54 min read
Netting Lapwings and other Birds
Also, reproduced many times in books and magazines are Frank Parkinson’s photographs of plover netting on Cowbit Wash with clap-nets....
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