Page 8 - The Farming Years proof

FARMInG FULFILLMEnT
pelled versions. I know all this because, at around 9 years old in 1942, I would ride to the farming activity on my bike in the school holidays.
I am sure they made good money during the war which set them up to qualify as farm tenants at Sandy Hill Farm on the Lord Lum- burnham Estate. They continued the partnership with Bernard running the farm and Harold running a domestic coal business with two lorries and, I would think, 4 employees. The domestic coal business eventually had little future and Harold was the rst person to have a JCB in the area. The partnership having ended, Harold had this business on his own and was in great demand with his JCB.
When Harold retired he sold the now old and out-of-date JCB to Johnsons the builders in Rothwell. They used it to dig out the swimming pool at our house in Billing.
I will now move to Bernard who, as an agricultural contractor, had acquired a lot of farming knowledge by working with experienced farmers. Sandy Hill Farm was an arable holding with a pig-rearing unit. It was not the best land with a large part of it on hills with sand at the top and clay at the bottom and loam in between. There were no short cuts to crop rotation in those days and wheat, pota- toes, eld beans and peas were grown.
The crops were all spring sown which allowed the autumn and winter ploughed elds to be broken up with frost before discing and harrowing in the spring. The corn was all harvested by a bind- er which cut the corn into sheaves that were then built into a stack for thrashing later.
The potatoes were put into a clamp which was a long pile pointed at the top and thatched with straw. It was later riddled into sizes when the clamp was opened and it was time to sell.
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