ag labs

[Wulfsige]

I am amazed at how often, and how far, my ag lab forebears, and those of my friend and of my wife, moved - not to join the new iron and coal industry in Wales, but simply to work as ag labs on different farms, often in different counties. Can anyone on the forum (a) offer an explanation, and/or (b) suggest a good book on the life of ag labs from, say 1500-1850?

[Fisherman]

Hi,
This book might be of interest to you.

My Ancestor Was An Agricultural Labourer by Ian Waller.
It's had a couple of good reviews.

Fisherman

[wivenhoe]

Google....."hiring fairs".....might find something of use to you.

[Wulfsige]

Thank you. Good suggestions, to be followed up

[coombs]

One of my Berkshire ag lab ancestors moved from West Berkshire to East Berkshire in about 1745. His ancestors came from Wiltshire. Shows how you may have to consider such movements when trying to trace ag lab ancestors or any ones as people were very mobile.

[Wulfsige]

...and mine went from Wiltshire to Somerset. Interesting.

[Erato]

"from West Berkshire to East Berkshire"

That's what?  50 miles?

[coombs]

"from West Berkshire to East Berkshire"

That's what?  50 miles?

Still a fair distance, you cannot compare the duration of travelling in 1750 to today. People were more mobile than you think as I said, but it was still a journey, on land on dusty roads by horse and cart.

[Rena]

There are two types of farming :

(a) pastoral (rearing animals for food such as cattle, sheep and pigs ,
 
(b) arable (growing crops, including cereals such as wheat, and barley, oilseed rape, peas and beans, sugar beet and potatoes. )

If an ancestor worked on a Duke's estate (for example) he might have travelled quite some distances to work on his employer's farms, especially moving when needed for spring lambing, or moving in autumn for harvesting before the rains came.

When I was young I lived in a farming village and remember one year when my then boyfriend had been working long hours through the night for his farmer employer gathering in the crops and then was sent forty miles northward, where he stayed for three weeks,  to assist another farmer gather in his crops.

When my late OH was young in the 1950s he knew two old Irish farmhands in their 70s, who lived in Ireland with their families during the winter months and then travelled to England travelling across the land assisting with seasonal work.