Genealogy Chat

My other half descends from a long line of ag labs, his father worked the land too. Hubby still proclaims 'its going to be a hard winter, just look at the berries on that' He has some very weird foresight into the weather. I'm still not sure if it actually works out as he predicts! So I guess some of the old traditions are still there but getting a little diluted now!

I have to say that I don't recognise Brian's version of the past. Game from the woods was poaching: you could be transported. There was similarly a very dim view taken of those who collected firewood from anywhere but common land. My 'father of eight' ancestor could NOT support his children on his income. He needed parish relief on a weekly basis and two of his sons were forced to emigrate.

Three sisters are working dawn to dusk in a lincolnshire field. They are cutting winter cabbage by hand. They are in line and linked together by a rope around their waists. The middle one is blind.That is what some of my family contributed.

Thanks Janet and Brian, I have saved both of your posts. It certainly hit home to me a few weeks ago, how an ag lab worked and lived. I went to visit the village (blink and miss it!) of my ggg gf who was an ag lab in Hants. The lane that I drove down was so tiny and the fields were vast. I couldn't imagine living like they did. I take my hat off to all ag labs!! Julia

I recon that although life was not filled with luxuries the needs were simpler and more easily met. Game from the fields and woods provided meat. Vegetables from the fields filled the pot. Fuel came from the woods. Bees provided honey, ale and wine was home-made. Whatever he earned was his to spend on his family, no Income tax on the low-paid. No Council Tax. Transport needs met by his, his employer's or his neighbour's horse. His wife would sew or knit clothing. Furniture was rough and simple, knocked up from local timber, not from IKEA. He could bring up eight kids on a few shillings a week.

I found the following in the Liverpool Family History Magazine June 02 and it puts a very different slant on our Ag Labs. They are the salt of the Earth and we should all be proud of them! I know I am! 'Food For Thought - He must have been an Ag Lab ' 'Ask yourselves whether you know the gestation period for a sheep or a cow, and you can't read or write to make a note of it. The ag lab knew when the animal would calve by observing the position of the stars and work it out from that, or from the particular religious festivals being celebrated in church at the appropriate times. Reading and writing is one thing, but it wasn't necessary. Numeracy, however, or a limited knowledge of it, was essential so as to count his or his master’s livestock and his own money and to tell the time. It was no good thinking that 7 o'clock came immediately after three bells had just struck on the church clock! There was no electricity, the lanes were bad and there was no health service. The Ag lab knew how to make his own rush lights to light his home, the shortest and driest route between 2 places and which herbs to pick as remedies for his families' ailments. He knew his neighbours far better than we know ours. We isolate ourselves in our cars and in front of our television sets. He relied on neighbours with different skills from his, to help him out when the need arose. He was thrifty where we borrow on bits of plastic he and his family had to make ends meet regardless or with great shame go on the parish. Yes, he could even forecast his local weather by watching the reactions of wildlife and plants to changing conditions. He was far better at it than any of us from our centrally heated homes and offices. He knew how to thatch and how to get straight straw for thatching whereas we send for experts to fix a cracked slate. He was tough. He could walk for days behind a plough, pulled by a team of horses, and still walk miles to church each Sunday. A 20 mile walk, laden with produce or purchases to and from market each week was also the norm for some. No fancily equipped gymnasium for him, yet he was fitter than today's health freaks, who maybe should take a lesson or two from his ancestors. Can you use a sickle or scythe from dawn to dusk, in all weathers? Can you snare a rabbit for dinner or cut beanpoles from a hedge in a manner that will promote further growth? Can you mix your own whitewash, or train a dog to hunt or round up sheep for you? Come to that can you milk a cow or slaughter and butcher a sheep or pig? So-called ag labs were no fools. They survived and very few of us would be here to read this if they hadn't! Leave your car at home and walk to work tomorrow, even if it is five miles, your ancestor did!' Janet

See Below