'The last survivor of an ancient race': The changing face of essex gleaning

Agricultural History Review

Volumn 45, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 61-72

  Hussey, Stephen ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 6244306520     PISSN: 00021490     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. H E Bates, 'The gleaner', Country Tales, 1938 (1992 ed), pp 69-73.
2. Ibid, p 69.
3. Ibid, p 71.
4. For a brilliant exploration of the range of adherents to the belief in the link between the countryside, nation, its people and their character, see Patrick Wright, The Village that died for England: The Strange Story of Tyneham, 1995, esp parts 2 and 3.
5. Leviticus, xix, 9 & 10; Deuteronomy, xxiv, 19 & 21.
6. Leviticus, xix, 9 & 10; Deuteronomy, xxiv, 19 & 21.
7. Peter King, 'Customary rights and women's earnings: the importance of gleaning to the labouring poor, 1750-1850', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, xxliv, 1991, pp 469-72.
8. Bates, The gleaner', p 69.
9. King, 'Customary rights', p 474.
10. This article is based upon twenty-five oral history interviews conducted in Steeple Bumpstead, Helions Bumpstead and Toppesfield, North Essex, between 1992 and 1995. Use was also made of the oral history interviews of Basil Slaughter (held at the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford [hereafter ERO]), Essex based interviews within the Family Life and Work Experience before 1918 project (held at the Department of Sociology, University of Essex), and also the written reminiscences of elderly people collected in the annual Age Concern Essay Writing Competition dating from 1955 onwards (held at the ERO).
11. Letter from Reuben Hunt, Earls Colne, Essex Review, xxxiv, 1925, p 162.
12. Letter from Alfred Hills, Booking, Essex Review, xxxiv, 1925, p 107.
13. Letter from L Myhill, Saffron Walden, Essex Review, xxxiv, 1925, p 211.
14. Eliza Vaughan, The Stream of Time: Sketches of Village Life in Days Gone By, Colchester, 1926, p 84.
15. Reverend Cecil Deedes and H B Walters, The Church Bells of Essex, privately published, 1909, p 150.
16. ERO, T/P 116/86, Letter from Alfred Hills of Bocking to Mr Frank Hobson, Silver End, Whitham, 16 Aug 1933.
17. Hunt, 'Letter', p 162.
18. Letter from Alfred Ludgater, Essex Review, xxxiv, 1925, p 108.
19. For the functions of harvest lords see Bob Bushaway, By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England 1700-1880, 1982, pp 111-16.
20. Letter from R F Sketchley, Notes and Queries, 2nd ser, Oct 1860, P 285. Also see D H Morgan, Harvesters and Harvesting 1840-1900, 1982, pp 158-9.
21. Letter from R F Sketchley, Notes and Queries, 2nd ser, Oct 1860, P 285. Also see D H Morgan, Harvesters and Harvesting 1840-1900, 1982, pp 158-9.
22. Mary Goodwin, born 1884, interviewed 1971, in Robert Gibson, Annals of Ashdon: No Ordinary Village, Chelmsford, 1988, p 282.
23. Chris Ketteridge and Spike Mays, Five Miles from Bunkum: A Village and its Crafts, 1972, p 81.
24. Vaughan, Stream of Time, chap 9.
25. Interview with Mr W, Toppesfield, b 1909, recorded 1994.
26. Interview with Mrs S, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1908, recorded 1992.
27. Interview with Mr A, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1908, recorded 1992.
28. See Ashley Cooper, The Long Furrow, Bulmer, 1982, p 107, and Heart of Our History, Bulmer, 1994, p 144; Rosamund Richardson, Swanbrooke Down: A Century of Change in an English Village, 1990, pp 32 and 63.
29. See Ashley Cooper, The Long Furrow, Bulmer, 1982, p 107, and Heart of Our History, Bulmer, 1994, p 144; Rosamund Richardson, Swanbrooke Down: A Century of Change in an English Village, 1990, pp 32 and 63.
30. See Ashley Cooper, The Long Furrow, Bulmer, 1982, p 107, and Heart of Our History, Bulmer, 1994, p 144; Rosamund Richardson, Swanbrooke Down: A Century of Change in an English Village, 1990, pp 32 and 63.
31. See ERO T/Z 25/1794, T/Z 25/2608, T/Z 25/2562 and T/Z 25/2563.
32. See E J T Collins, 'Harvest technology and labour supply in Britain, 1790-1870', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, xxii, 1969; M Roberts, 'Sickles and scythes: women's work and men's work at harvest time', History Workshop, vii, 1979; and Keith Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor, 1985, pp 49-51.
33. See E J T Collins, 'Harvest technology and labour supply in Britain, 1790-1870', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, xxii, 1969; M Roberts, 'Sickles and scythes: women's work and men's work at harvest time', History Workshop, vii, 1979; and Keith Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor, 1985, pp 49-51.
34. See E J T Collins, 'Harvest technology and labour supply in Britain, 1790-1870', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, xxii, 1969; M Roberts, 'Sickles and scythes: women's work and men's work at harvest time', History Workshop, vii, 1979; and Keith Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor, 1985, pp 49-51.
35. I am grateful to Steve Caunce for suggesting this point.
36. Letter from Philip Buck, London, Essex Review, xxxiv, 1925, p 211.
37. Hunt, 'Letter', pp 162-3.
38. Interview with Mrs W, Helions Bumpstead, b 1933, recorded 1995.
39. Bushaway, By Rite, p 147; and Morgan, Harvesters, p 65.
40. Bushaway, By Rite, p 147; and Morgan, Harvesters, p 65.
41. ERO T/Z 25/1574, 'Some old customs', essay by Carl Morton, Great Bentley, Essex, b 1903, written 1979.
42. Interview with Mr M, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1925, recorded 1995.
43. Ludgater, 'Letter', p 109.
44. Vaughan, Stream of Time, p 84.
45. The rises in real wages of the Essex farm labourer during the late nineteenth century are detailed in Arthur Brown, Meagre Harvest, Chelmsford, 1990, pp 114-7. For improvements to inter-war levels of the labourer's real wage see W H Pedley, Labour on the Land, 1942, chap 2.
46. The rises in real wages of the Essex farm labourer during the late nineteenth century are detailed in Arthur Brown, Meagre Harvest, Chelmsford, 1990, pp 114-7. For improvements to inter-war levels of the labourer's real wage see W H Pedley, Labour on the Land, 1942, chap 2.
47. John C Thresh, The Housing of the Working Classes in the Chelmsford ana Maldon Rural Sanitary Districts, Chelmsford, 1891, p 9.
48. Charlotte Fell Smith, 'In harvest time', Essex Review, xxxiv, 1925, p 243.
49. Kelly's Directory of Essex, 1878, 1908, and 1937.
50. Interview with Mr T, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1916, recorded 1992.
51. ERO T/Z 25/27, 'Essex memories', esssay by anonymous author, b c 1880, Great Horkesley, Essex, written 1955.
52. ERO T/Z 25/63 'Childhood memories', essay by L Turvey, b 1876, Broomfield, Essex, written 1956. The link between gleaning and bread-making is made by a number of other writers in this collection of essays. In all instances the experiences of gleaning come from childhood in the late nineteenth century. See ERO T/Z 15/17, T/Z 25/27, and T/Z 25/33 (all written in 1955); also T/Z 25/64 (written in 1956).
53. Interview with Mrs S, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1908, interviewed 1992.
54. Interview with Mr A, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1908, interviewed 1992.
55. Interview with Mrs E, Toppesfield, b 1929, interviewed 1992.
56. For the gradual loss of these and other customary practices see Bushaway, By Rite, chap 4.
57. Interview with Mrs S, Steeple Bumpstead, b 1908, recorded 1992.
58. Jim Priest, 'The fellowship of the fields', The Essex Countryside, 29, 1981, p 53.