What is a "Carlick"?

[JenB]

From google books - Essex dialect (not so far away from Suffolk) charlock becomes carlick
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0sd7/

Added: I think this is the one that Rena referred to?

"Contribution to an Essex dialect diction "

Carlick (carlock) : charlock {Sinapis arvensis).

And from 'The Complete Farmer' 'carlick' = charlock http://www.rootschat.com/links/0sd8/

[Skoosh]

Re' dialect words, in Caithness I believe they call this stuff "Scollags".

Skoosh.

[wardyfam]

Wow...thank you so much for the information everyone.

So it seems the poor young lad might have been pulling some sort of plant instead of learning his 3 R's!!
Sad to think that children so young were put to work to bring in a few pennies to help out because of the poor living conditions of the family.
Williams first wife (who was my gt grandmother) had died of consumption in 1881 so this was his second marriage. In this second marriage, (in 1886) he and his wife had 8 children, 5 at the time of his fine. So I expect the cupboards were bare. Hence having to send a very young boy out to work instead of educating him!!

Thank you all again...it has opened a whole new insight into my families lives, and their misdemeanors. lol

[Rena]

From google books - Essex dialect (not so far away from Suffolk) charlock becomes carlick
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0sd7/

Added: I think this is the one that Rena referred to?

"Contribution to an Essex dialect diction "

Carlick (carlock) : charlock {Sinapis arvensis).

And from 'The Complete Farmer' 'carlick' = charlock http://www.rootschat.com/links/0sd8/

You're quite right I was referring to the wild mustard which can contaminate grain if not weeded out before the seeds are formed. The weed severely reduces the crop yields of cereals such as barley and wheat, etc.

<<Flower heads were once knocked off by means of a switch or special machine to prevent seed production, hand pulling was also a common practice. Preventing charlock from seeding will reduce the soil seedbank by an order of magnitude after 10 years but allowing seeding to occur in just a single year will restore the population again. >>

[behindthefrogs]

You should be able to resolve whether it was Charlock or Garlick from the time of the year when he was missing from school.

Garlick is harvested in late summer and early autumn while the weeding out of charlock should have taken place in the spring.

[JenB]

The newspaper report was dated 25th July, and it was about the Petty Sessions held on 19th July. No detail is given of the date on which the 'crime' was committed.

[Greensleeves]

I can't think that Suffolk has ever been noted for its garlic harvests so I would say that the pulling of the wild mustard is much more likely.

Regards,
GS

[Bob briscoe]

I farm land in Suffolk, and carlicks is the large wild mustard weed. I didn't realise it was called Charlock by everyone else until I just looked it up just now. We have had it particularly badly in the last few years contaminating the oil seed rape. You'll see it growing a foot or so higher than the rape, and it looks vaguely similar from a distance.

In my grandfather's day when there were many more folks working on the farm, they used to pull wild oats from the wheat crop by hand, so I'm sure it would have been common to pull carlicks too, because like wild oats they are taller, so they dominate the crop otherwise. When I was a kid (and this was only 1970s), truancy to earn cash for the family on farms was still fairly common, so I have no doubt kids were paid to hand weed.

I found carlicks as an alternative spelling of charlock here: http://www.finedictionary.com/charlock.html.

BTW, history buffs might also be interested the web pages I've created about Queen Mary's Lane that runs through our farm http://www.homefarmparham.co.uk/,

[Greensleeves]

Welcome to Rootschat, Bob, and thanks for that interesting information.  I do hope the lad who was playing truant to pull the carlick earned more than the 5/- his father was fined!    Truancy was always rife in agricultural areas when extra labour was needed on the farms, I am sure.  I know from my own experience that we used to miss school to go pea-picking in the early 1960s,  being paid the handsome sum of 2/6d (12p)  per 28lb sack.