Threshing time

Maurice Pearce

Mr Flack kept his steam ploughs and threshing tackle in a yard in Fishers Lane and in the winter, when there was little for us lads to do at Manor farm, he would hire us to help with the threshing for other farmers who hadn’t enough men for the job. It was a very cold and dirty, dusty job and well worth the extra money we were paid.When you go to shows and see these machines working, it all looks nice and easy all set out in a grassy field but, believe me, that’s not half of it.I have seen these machines in stackyards with mud up to their axles and men having to work with overcoats and gloves on to keep out the ice cold winds.A lot of these stacks, in which the corn was stored until threshing time, were right out in the open fields with no protection and the wind blew the chaff and straw into our faces. All this for five shillings a day, but it was the way of life for most countrymen and we took it all as a job that had to be done.

My father and I worked a total of one hundred years on Manor Farm, and were each very proud to accept our Royal Agricultural Society medals for fifty years’ service. My medal was presented to me by Princess Alexandra at Peterborough, and the Queen Mother presented my father’s medal when the Royal Show was held at Cambridge.