THIS snapshot, taken at Cackleshaw Farm, Oakworth, evokes an idyllic image of pre-war summers – at least on days when the sun shone.
The little boy was Raymond Mitchell, born in 1934.
In 1860 another local farmer’s son, ten-year-old Francis Middlebrook of Hainworth Shaw, had recorded the agricultural year in a diary which his mother made him keep to help his spelling.
Haymaking began in July in the Big Ing. By August 19 “they was a great many people working in the hay,” and four days later the first cartload was led out of the Little Ing. The hay was all in by September 10.
“It has been a very wet hay time, it is eight weeks since we begun,” Francis commented, belying any notion of beautiful summers in the past. In 1860 there were 13 wet Sundays in a row!
The photograph has been supplied by Mrs Rosamund Mitchell, of Grange Farm, Oakworth.
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