John Smith, a grower
of prize
vegetables
THE late JOHN SMITH of Blackmore End recalled his early
days on the land:
I left school when I was 13 years of age on 15th October 1912, and went
to work on a farm about 200yards from home.
The name of
the farm was Lealands, Blackmore End. The names of the fields were Homefield,
Ryehills, Lampits, two small strips of land separated by a brook from
the main fields, which were named Blackwater and Rounabout, the rest were
Tilikiln, Lye, Barnifield, Greatfield, Harvest Field and Blake.
I started work the day after I left school getting wood, coal etc in for
the farmhouse, also cleaning shoes, helping with feeding cattle, pigs,
poultry etc., and for this I was paid the sum of 7s6d per week which is
37pence by today’s value. The hours were from 6am to 5.30pm, with
breaks for meals six days a week, then Sunday morning and afternoon to
feed the cattle and pigs.
After I had finished work about the yard I went to work in the fields
helping with ordinary farm work.In the November, a month after I left
school I was helping with pulIing mangolds and swedes (turnip-like vegetables),
all covered with white frost, there were no gloves then as there are today.
How I wished then that I was back at school.
An elder brother also worked on the farm and one winter’s day we
were getting a load of straw for the cattle when I suppose
A year or two later this same horse who's name was Dodd ran away again, this time with a water cart in a meadow but when it turned to come back towards home the water cart turned over and flung the horse over as well. I don’t think it ran away any more after that.
The thunder bolt passed through the bedroom, down the front stairs and through the front hall (where it ripped the lino) then through to the kitchen and out of the scullery door, which was open at the time. It then splashed into a pool of water outside the shed that I was in alone. The lightning seemed to circle around me for some seconds while I hid behind some tubs used for mixing pig food. The shed was about 12 yards from the house.
During thewinter months a man with a helper would come along with a hay trusser which was hand operated to form the hay into trusses. They were then loaded onto a wagon as they had been bought mostly by a London firm then taken to
Lealands, where the bolt of lightning
passed through the house
John Smith, right. with his mother and brothers
Braintree
railway goods station. I very often went with the horseman to look after
the trace horse as there were three horses with the load. Going down hills
we had to put a cast iron shoe under one of the back wheels to help the
horses hold the load. Sometimes the farmer would send a bundle of straw
for the railway man who loaded the trusses into the truck as he kept tame
rabbits. This was for their bedding.We mostly walked both ways as it was
cold, it was about six miles each way.
It was during loading one of these loads of 100 trusses, back at the farm
when this remarkable incident occurred.
The load was
being secured by ropes and the farmer was on top of the load pulling the
rope tight. The horseman was tying the rope to the wagon when the rope
broke causing the farmer to fall. He made a complete somersault onto the
back of the horseman and landed on his feet not hurting himself or the
horseman.
In September 1921 myself and another man were made redundant. There was
no dole for farm workers at that time. From that time for about 14 months
I worked on different farms then in December 1922 I was offered a temporary
job with the Essex County Council Highway Department. This lasted nearly
42 years until I retired on 15th October 1964.