Agricultural practice of "Term Day"

[Skoosh]

Chris Guthrie scotmum, what a wummin!

Skoosh.

[GordonFindlay]

Thanks everyone! What a mine of information  you have created.

And this might explain why my grandparents had 11 children (1901 - 1919) in 8 locations.

Slainte
Gordon

[GR2]

The system of feeing markets and term-time flittings was still flourishing in the north east well into the 20th century, although as time went on you started seeing jobs advertised in the newspapers as well.

Single men tended to be engaged for six months at a time, either staying in a bothy and doing their own cooking, or more usually in the north east, living in the chalmer and getting their meals in the farmhouse kitchen. On engagement the farmer gave the worker 2/6d in arles. He got his wages at the end of the six months.

Most married men engaged in May for a year at a time and lived in a cottar house. If they engaged for a year, their arles were 5/-. There were some, however, who flitted every term. My grandmother's parents were at a total of seventeen different farms before leasing a croft.

When the term time approached, the farmer would ask the workers he wanted to keep if they wished to stay for another term. If so, they would agree on wages. If you weren't asked, you knew you had to go to the feeing market and bargain for a new place.

In rural school log books, there is often an entry at term time noting the effect on the school roll as workers with large families moved in and out of the area.

[Countryquine]

Term day was an expression still used in my childhood in the 60s, though the average farmworker stayed put as long as all was well then.   Rents were still due to be paid on Term Day, i.e Whitsun and Martinmas.   My gr grandmother's birthday is easily remember as my mother always referred to her granny's birthday as being Term Day (28th May).

I remember the local papers having long lists of job adverts for agricultural workers in the 60s.  Now there is rarely one a week.   At my small rural school in Aberdeenshire in the 60s, the father of most children was either a farmer or agricultural worker, or working in an industry related to agriculture.   In the 90s, my sons attended a large town primary, though the town is in the heartland of NE agriculture and only a handful of children came from families working in agriculture.  Changed days!

[GordonFindlay]

Thanks for all the replies. 

On the subject of the farm-touns, I stumbled across two extracts from David Kerr Cameron's book "
Ballad and the Plough: A Portrait of the Life of the Old Scottish Farmtouns" (pub 1978) in the Aberdeen Express of Aug 1978.

The extracts - one about bothy life, one about the life of domestic servants - inspired me to hunt the book down. It is still available at Amazon in Kindle format, or second-hand on paper, at very reasonable prices. (No doubt it's in libraries too, but not here.) Well written, enjoyable, not scholarly in tone.

It's a very interesting and important slice of social history, which on every page makes me respect my ancestors more, and makes me really glad that my parents emigrated to NZ!

[goldie61]

Thanks for all the replies. 

On the subject of the farm-touns, I stumbled across two extracts from David Kerr Cameron's book "
Ballad and the Plough: A Portrait of the Life of the Old Scottish Farmtouns" (pub 1978) in the Aberdeen Express of Aug 1978.

The extracts - one about bothy life, one about the life of domestic servants - inspired me to hunt the book down. It is still available at Amazon in Kindle format, or second-hand on paper, at very reasonable prices. (No doubt it's in libraries too, but not here.) Well written, enjoyable, not scholarly in tone.

It's a very interesting and important slice of social history, which on every page makes me respect my ancestors more, and makes me really glad that my parents emigrated to NZ!

I always look twice when somebody says 'the good old days........"
Not true for many of our ancestors.

[Skoosh]

The ordinary folk paid the price for the social aspirations of the landed class. Anent NZ, how were things there with the Maori folk? 

Skoosh.

[RWTaylor]

A really useful source of information is 'Farm Life in NorthEast Scotland' by Ian Carter - who was at Aberdeen University and subsequently a Professor at the University of Auckland. May be hard to come by, but is the definitive work. I can also recommend 'Jock's Jocks' an oral history of survivors of WW1 from the North East - though much of it is the Doric so may not be as accessible ...