Hay Days
Memories of Country Life in the 1920s
Fred Archer(Author)
Sutton Publishing Ltd
Published on 20. September 2001
Book
Hardback
160 pages
978-0-7509-2794-9 (ISBN)
Description
This final book from Fred Archer, written just before he died, recreates the hard times and the joys of the year 1924 on Bredon Hill where he farmed. After the sacrifices of the First World War, the villagers gradually come to terms with the loss of their young men, only to find themselves facing the anxiety of the Depression, and the tragedy of foot-and-mouth disease. As grain and stock prices tumble, they have to find other ways of making a living, and so the land begins to reak of sprouts, as farmers turn to market gardening on the rich black soil. But against this bleak background, we are surrounded by the characters Fred met as boy. Fred Chandler the cowman, who sang hymns to his herd as they munched their bait from the manger. Walt, one of the last real ploughmen, whose faithful horses were his world and granted them regular treats of cattle cake. Sam, who somehow created an orchard on the land and sold blood red wallflowers in the markets of the north. And Fred recalls his own first days as a farmer's boy, straight from school, desperately trying not to plough a 'furrow as crooked as a dog's hind leg'!
Alongside the text are his own interesting recollections of how he first came to writing, and a biographical introduction written by a Worcestershire journalist who knew him well.
Alongside the text are his own interesting recollections of how he first came to writing, and a biographical introduction written by a Worcestershire journalist who knew him well.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Stroud
United Kingdom
Publishing group
The History Press Ltd
Illustrations
portraits
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7509-2794-9 (9780750927949)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Fred Archer is a well loved raconteur of country life. Now in his eighties, he has written over twenty books, many of them recreating the tenor and character of farming life during the first half of the twentieth century. The Tibblestone Hundred, was published by Sutton Publishing in 1996, Hawthorn Farm in April 1998.