Stories from our visitors.

Stories that are legal, clean and decent will be posted here.... our thanks to those who have already contributed.

Sheep counting 21/3/2006

has anyone compared the Welsh sheep counting
with the following - nos. 1 to 10

Ek, do, tin, cha, panchh, che, sat, ath, nau, das.

(OK my spelling is probably not good but it is not a Greco-Roman script anyway)

(WebMin: for comparison, the Welsh numerals:

un, dwy, tair, pedair, pimp, chwe, saith, wyth, naw, deg!)

it looks somewhat close.

What is this count? Hindi! As Hindi is a derivate of Sanskrit, I believe,
it indicates that the count may well not be "British" (i.e. around 100 BC
and later) but much older.

Alan Clatworthy

Washday: 08/01/2006

My mum used a dollytub in the fifties and had a brass posser, she had 9 members of family to wash for, and always boiled her whites before washing them, she was on the go all day Monday, in between cooking and baking for her large family.

Luxury for her was when she got a mangle, it helped to get rid of a lot of the water before drying.

I must say also, that we always had clean clothes and bedding, but looking back it must have been a very hard life. When she had a minute to spare she never relaxed, she would bake a pile of cakes and scones for us hungry children.
Ruth Burns

Re: Mystery object 1.

I think the wooden box with turntable (Countryside, What IS that?) might be part of a shoeshine kit (I think I've seen similar on my travels in Peru). The shoeshine sits on the swivelling chair facing their client who rests his shoe on the cutout - the box, which is then between the shoeshine and his client, can hold various polishes, rags and brushes and is easily accessible while the shoeshine carries out the task in hand.

Brian Wilkinson, Scotland

Horse breeding in Slaidburn - from Roman times to the Dissolution: 30/7/02

The piece about Roman Sarmatian cavalry based at Ribchester interested me as my mother Dr. M.C. Higham (who is a historical geographer and place-name specialist) believes that on retirement the Sarmatians may have received land in Bowland, as a tradition of horse-breeding survived in the area through to the monastic period. Kirkstall Abbey had horse breeding "ranches" in the Slaidburn area up until the dissolution. A local farmer has deeds for his farm that actually mention that horses were kept rather than sheep or cattle as they were able to escape the predations of wolves. We also have a road leading to the village called "the Skaithe" which may signify a race-track during the viking period, although I personally visualise it more as a place to show off horses much as at the horse fair at Appleby.

John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster (1340-99) was also breeding horses in the Forest of Bowland in the 1300's. Place names such as "Stott Heys" and "Stod or Stott Close" (stud enclosure) seem to show the area was involved in horse breeding.

D Higham (www.slaidburn.org.uk).

1945, Pony numbers: 9/7/02

During the Second World War, 1939 -1945, many horses and ponies went to slaughter because of social dislocation, financial upheaval, industrialisation and the progression of the internal combustion engine. In short, the work which horses and ponies had done for years was now being done by machines and food for man and beast was in short supply......... there was rationing. Petrol rationing for private use gave Fell Ponies a reprieve....... people went back to horse transport because they could not buy petrol for private use. 1945 Harry Wales, my grandfather, and Frank Wales, my father, went to a Fell Pony meeting which was held at The Guards, the home of Mr Richard Little. other members present were Mr Charlton, Mrs Sylvia Marshall (nee Hazell; later McCosh....... she married Bryce McCosh, Ailie Newall's brother,) Mr Sam Wood from Crosby Lodge, Eddie Wilson (only Eddie and my father Frank are still alive) and the three travelling stallion men..... Joe Baxter, Joe Relph (Chairman) and Mr Bellas from Keswick (there was a father and two sons but I can't remember their Christian names.....) [Father was John Bellas. Sons??]

At this meeting it was estimated that there were less than 50 registered Fell Ponies left; of which between 36-40 were fillies/mares and the rest were either geldings or colts / stallions. No estimate could or can be given for the number of ponies which could have been registered but which for some / any reason had not been.

At this meeting members were encouraged to:- 1) register eligible ponies....... hence we see a number of ponies registered retrospectively. 2) Encourage new members......... stud book shows new names and prefixes. 3) The idea of a stallion enclosure was hatched.

1946. Fell Pony meeting. Stallion Enclosure scheme established; enclosure at Berrier. This was open to registered and unregistered mares. Such was the demand, a second enclosure at Arnside was established. Date ???? Arnside was I think created because of demand and nearer location for some people.

1949. Enclosure scheme limited to registered mares. Can't remember date. Berrier closed, land no longer available, and the enclosure moved to Wet Sleddale..... Henry Harrison's before the dam was built....... We tend to forget how pony transport was, before the advent of the 4X4. I remember taking ponies to Berrier and Wet Sleddale........ JUST

1945........ estimate 30,000+ horses and ponies went for slaughter; this rose to 1948..........estimate 62,000+.horses and ponies went for slaughter. Many / most went into the human food chain, in cans. Horses and ponies were no longer a neccesity but a luxury. Motorised transport was here to stay. Horses/ ponies have survived because of their ability to change / 'move with the times.'

"The Age of the Heavy Horses" lasted less than 200 years. It began with the development of a wheel that turned on an axle and the invention, by James Small a Scot, of a light weight plough with a skimming board and ended with the progression of the motor car and tractor. What has become known as "The mass slaughter of the heavies" began in the south of England in 1947 and reached the northern counties in 1952........ by which time most farms had tractors. Sad but true. Christine Morton.

Dolly Tubs! Used to be like marriage, one in every home! 29/04/02

Hello I was interested in your museum page. I was doing a search for Dolly Blue as I often play in Jazzbands at The old Dolly Blue Works at Backbarrow which you will now know as the Whitewater Hotel. They had in the Downstairs Bar (was the Blueroom bar) now the Fisherman’s Bar a display of dolly blue and some mining explosives. Many visitors who come to listen to the music ask about dolly blue. I can remember my Mother and Grandma and neighbours using this for whitening. We also had a dolly tub and posser. and I vivid remember when our old tin bath had rusted through and my dad bathed all four of us one after another in the dolly tub. The posser had a circular disc at the business end with holes in it. I remember tilting, Knight in armour style at washing on the line in our backyard. I am looking for the manufacturing process for dolly blue and the materials that were used. I also remember that a dunk (dip) of dolly blue in white wash gave a brilliant whiteness to walls. Cellars and outside toilets were proudly kept in pristine condition.

Haytime and tea time in Mosedale: 8/4/02

"There was an old man used to say: any fathead could plough.... but it took a good man to harrow." i wonder if he is the same mr. gate who farmed at mosedale at the foot of carrock fell when i was a boy and later moved to shap. [webmin: Yes he is] i have fond memories of being allowed to drive the horse drawn hay cart and eating mrs. gates’ salty rock buns in the hayfield washed down with billy cans of scalding tea.

i remember vividly sitting on a huge black leather and horseshair couch in the big kitchen with its slate floor and rag mats. there were rocks sticking out of the walls that had been papered over. there was a distinctive smell of shitty clogs by the door and sock feet, something entirely missing from the asceptic way we live today. mrs. gates served a giant crock of boiled potatoes with hunks of cold beef, no vegetables, just tea and cake to follow.

especially i remember ’rap’ the blue grey and white top dog. he would run for miles behind the tractor with his nose just inches from the spinning wheels. i guess he was just another farm dog (you have probably heard the wry tale about the cumbrian farmer who said "that dog nearly broke my heart when i had to shoot him because he was too old to work") but for a little lad from the city he was something very special.

in the cobbled yard on the west side of the road there was a huge grindstone and a turnip mangler, both hand cranked. the mangle was in regular use to chop turnips (’neeps’ as thy are eloquently known where i lived later in burns country) to feed sheep. there was also a device like a barbed dagger that could be plunged into the hay stacked in the dutch barn to check if it was fermenting and getting hot enough to self ignite. jack told me to stop using it "or there’ll be nee hay left come winter".

the farm had a big radio that was driven off accumulator cells. these had to be taken to penrith on market day to be recharged off mains electricity. one time whoever had been to market had forgotten to take the cells which got them an expression of displeasure from the matriarch.

the wet weather gear on the farm fascinated me. a hessian tattie sack would have its corner inverted to form a pixie hood to protect the head and form a cape over the shoulders. thomas was often seen clacking about the farm in his clogs with one of these on his head.

there’s lots more: calf feeding, gathering bracken for litter, the landslide into the river, skimming the cream in the kitchen dairy, the night they let me sleep in the house, damming the water sluice to cool the churns, driving sheep back up the fell and watching with horror as teddy threw a "brokken moothed auld yow" on her back to perform some emergency dentistry with his thumbs. thanks for bringing back all those memories.

Washday: 2/4/2002

I remember using a small mangle as a small child, as late as the 70's. We had a top-loading washing machine in the back porch that we filled with a hosepipe. Then carried the wet washing in a bucket to the mangle outside. The weeks washing was done on a Saturday (mum worked) come hail or shine. We wore wellies as it was wet work stood at the mangle. On wet days the clothes were hung on lines in the shed and out-house (the loo). We tried not GO while it was still dripping! The house was modernized in the early 80’s, life was never quite the same again. I miss team work of wash day, a tin bath in front of a roaring coal fire, baking day, milk stood in pans of water in the porch, but I don’t miss the potty under the bed (replaced by an inside bathroom when I was 15).

Riding on a Deer Saddle: 15/2/2002

Yes I have ridden on a deer saddle, to the utter dismay of the ponyman in charge of the deer pony (a Highland pony) at the time, who saw his charge purely as a load carrier, dumb-workmate and piece-bag pincher, to be the silent receiver of the deepest oaths uttered all the way up the glen to the waiting post.

No it was not at all comfortable, but it was better than walking up 2000ft first thing in the morning with a hangover.

Many hours have I spent rubbing dubbin into deer saddles and their many straps to protect them from the Highland rain.

Gallowa’ ponies: 10/10/2001

When I started working on a farm in West Yorkshire in the 1950s [early] any sturdy, thickset and strong, big pony or small horse, was called a gallowa'. Not Galloway you notice, but the connection is plain. Hundreds of such ponies were used on the milk rounds that many farmers ran in those days, and when the milk was delivered the Gallowa’ was amply strong and game enough to tackle such jobs as light carting, harrowing, scruffling [weeding between rowcrops] and of course as a trap pony. Many farmers of my aquaintance relied on their Gallowa’ to get them home, the worse for wear after a day at the mart and a little too much of the hard stuff!

Girls’ Games: 10/8/2001

Girls’ games went in and out of fashion at different times of year; one time it would be hoops (we used to practise spinning them round our waists), then next week, nobody knew why, we'd all be desperate for whips and tops, and thrashing them round the school playground. Or there would be a craze for being able to hand-stand against the wall. Just as well the boys’ playground had a high brick wall between them and us! (1960’s)

I used that - Stories told to us - Men on the Farm - Women on the Farm - Children on the Farm