In 1840 some 44% of the population of Great Britain worked in agriculture. By the time of the 2011 census this figure had declined to 1%. Currently, less than 4% of the rural population has any connection with farming or associated activities.
Growing up in the village during and just after the second world world, I lived in a community which was acutely aware of all that was happening on the surrounding land. At busy times of haymaking and harvest, everyone had a part to play. Many of the village men were away at the war and so everyone was pressed into service, including prisoners of war from the camp just outside the village on the way to Helmdon and airmen stationed at the RAF Communications Unit near Greatworth. I was one of the many village boys happily queuing up to drive the ubiquitous Fordson tractors and trailers between the haycocks, thus releasing an adult to wield a pitchfork.
Nowadays, almost all employed people in the village work in surrounding towns or take trains to London from Banbury or Milton Keynes. Those remaining in the village go about their daily lives largely unconscious of local farming activities, other than large tractors passing through, towing equally large trailers with hidden contents heading for unknown destinations. Those who use the footpaths through surrounding fields may pass through a growing crop one day and return a few days later to find it has gone with next year’s crop already in the ground. No one is to be seen other than in tractor cab. Gangs of children no longer roam the fields looking for employment, entertainment or mischief!
In order to re-establish a degree of connection between villagers and agriculture, the website’s de facto Agricultural Correspondent, Richard Fonge, has volunteered to provide a monthly digest in respect of current farming activities, which will be illustrated with pictures as appropriate. Richard grew up on his father’s farm at Stuchbury, went to agricultural college and before retirement spent 40 years in farm management. He is thus well placed for this task.
Colin Wootton
See next page for the first of these items, for this month of October 2017