Somewhere around 4000 BC, people in Britain began to give up their old hunter-gatherer way of life, instead raising livestock and planting crops: they became farmers.
This comprehensive and informative guide covers the history of farming in Britain since this time, when cattle were huge beasts and ploughs did little more than scratch the ground's surface. Tools and technologies may have changed since these primitive times, but the patterns of life on the farm have remained much the same.
From the medieval farm to the Agricultural Revolution as enclosure transformed the landscape, here is the story of how farming has evolved into the tractors and mechanization we recognise today. With photographs and illustrations this book also illuminates the life of farmworkers and their families.
What was it like being a cattle farmer or a shepherd? What did a farmer's wife spend her day making? An entertaining and detailed guide for anyone interested in the history and lives of the country's farmers.
Includes a list of farms and museums to visit of historic and general interest.
Though not all of Britain was suitable for arable farming, for centuries life on the farm depended on two things - manpower and horsepower. The first major change began in the 17th century with the enclosure of common land. Instead of farming their own strips, yeomen were employed by landowners and lived in tied cottages. New machines and closed fields helped to produce better breeds of livestock but the work of the farm still depended on hard manual labour, helped only by the horses that pulled the plough. The farm day was governed by the sun and each season had its own tasks - busiest of all was harvest time. Mechanisation began in the 19th century but had little impact until the middle of the 20th century. Everything changed with the arrival of the internal combustion engine and the development of the tractor; horses largely disappeared from farms and fewer workers were needed. One man and a machine could now do the work of dozens: farming had changed forever. This is the story of a way of life that has all but vanished.
