Page 5 - The Farming Years proof

CHAPTER 1
Growing Up, My Way (1940)
My rst contact with farming at the age of seven was a fringe contact. It was with shire horses that I admired with their docile strength and formidable appearance. Every week day, in the summer months, the two shire horses that pulled our local refuse cart which cleared the Rothwell domestic rubbish, went by our house in Rushton Road on their way to their grazing eld at around 4.30 p.m.
To me, it was a great thrill to walk down to the eld with the two dustmen and their horses. Their approach coming up the Rush- ton Road was very evident with the noise of their large hooves and I would run out to greet them. The dustmen seemed quite happy to have me walk with them and I guess asked me questions to get into conversation.
In the early days they let me ride on one of the horses at a point where there was no housing on the roadside for prying eyes, but there clearly were prying eyes because the rides soon ceased – a kind of 1940’s Health and Safety. I must have walked down with the hors- es for a couple of years but it was a summer activity and they had very adequate stables in the council yard for winter. They were well looked after and contributed to the local council services in Rothwell.
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