Farms

Before the school playing field was levelled and cleared, the ruins of a great barn were removed. Apart from the church fifty yards away, the barn was the oldest building in the village. It was reputed to be the old tithe barn, built partly from stones which came from the old church later rebuilt about 1380 by John Curteys who owed the nearby Manor, and who was at the time, Mayor of the Calais wool staple. Many of the stones from the barn were cut and decorated in a manner that probably a barn would not have merited, so it is possible they were from the church. The barn was in use by Poplar Farm until 1965, but only as a shelter for farm machinery. Grain and hay had not been stored in it for some years, there was no longer the need. The pedigree Friesian herd had been sold so no hay was wanted, the farm had become completely arable. Given good weather, a week or two with the combines followed by the stubble burning, and the harvest time has passed. The time may be even shorter next year when a new combine capable of dealing with up to seventy-five acres of grain may be in use.

Poplars Farm had its own threshing machines and also a steam driven plough. One steam engine was used at each end of the field, and between them they drew the plough up and down by winding onto drums, the steel rope attached to the plough. Then the engines were driven along a few feet to cut the next set of furrows. They were in use until about 1940.

Manor Farm, like many others, hired its threshing tackle. The great machine drawn by the steam engine which later powered it, usually arrived during an afternoon and was set up in the yard ready for work next day. It might stay on the farm for as long as a week or only for few days, depending on the amount of work for it. Also like the other farms, Manor Farm had to take on extra hands for the duration of harvest. A few men took days off from their normal work, or helped at weekends and in the evenings. Men cut the corn and bound the sheaves, children ‘set them up’ and later helped load the wagons and lead the horses back to the rickyard. The sheaves were pitched up to the men making the stacks and children led the wagons back. When the horses were unharnessed after the last loads at night, children were ordered to keep them away from the water troughs until they had fed, then they could drink and be stabled. Both harvest and threshing were times of feverish activity, noise and dust until the Second World War. A remark made recently by Mr. Keith Abbott of Manor Farm shows the situation changed. He had “just come down from the fields and the loneliness of harvesting on his own.” Manor Farm is 240 acres.

The New Inn Farm was only small, mixed arable and dairy, and is now let to Mr. Waller of Brook Farm, whose 118 acres adjoined the brewer’s fields. Like Manor Farm, Brook Farm is run by two brothers with no other help. Poplars Farm, 340 acres, is run by the owner, Mr. Smith, and one man, with extra help for a few weeks during harvest. Many of the hedges on this farm have been removed and fields enlarged so that combining is quicker and the yield greater. A variety of crops is grown – potatoes, brussels, corn, peas, sugar beet and mustard – thus ensuring an even rotation of work. The mustard seed, once grown solely for the manufacture of powered mustard, is being exported this year to West Germany for the extraction of an oil used in cleaning jet engines. Clover, once grown for cattle fodder, is sometimes grown now for its seed, used in the manufacture of ‘raspberry’ jam.

All the farms in the parish escaped the serious outbreak of foot and mouth disease which affected a nearby Rushden farm in 1926. All its cattle were slaughtered and the carcasses burnt in a field. There were cases also in Higham Ferrers, only two miles away. The standstill order for the area of course included Wymington, and this meant the prohibition of livestock movement on public roads. It had little effect on most of the village farms apart from dealings at local markets, but it was unfortunate for Manor Farm. The farmhouse, barns, implement sheds and milking shed are all on the eastern side of the road, and all the fields are on the western side. The cows could no longer be brought across the road for milking and this had to be done twice daily at a pair of derelict cottages about a quarter of a mile down the lane past the sewage works, past the water works, almost in the shadow of the great embankment of the loop line. Milking then was by hand, and milk was delivered to customers from a large bucket with a hinged lid. The pint and half-pint measures with their brass handles hung inside the bucket. Bottled milk was not delivered in the village until the Rushden Co-operative Society started a round in 1933.

One case of anthrax can be remembered in the parish within recent years. It was at Poplars Farm in 1954, when the prize bull had to be slaughtered. The then policeman at Wymington, P.C. Pettit, had to supervise the slaughter, and he personally dug the great pit where he burned the carcass.

Conditions in general have greatly improved in agriculture, although wages are still among the lowest paid in the country. About a hundred years ago, farm workers earned about 10/- for almost unlimited weekly hours. Today, the minimum adult wage for 42 hours is £14.6.0d, an increase of 33/- over the wage as it was in September 1970.

Shoe workers of a hundred years ago could earn nearly double the agricultural wage, even after the Factory Act of 1874 cut the working week to 56 hours. There is not such a wide difference today. The minimum adult wage in the shoe trade is £14.19.6d for 40 hours (September 1970). This is not a stable figure as it is one of the few trades whose wages are directly linked to the Cost of Living Index. A rise or fall of three points in the Index means an increase or decrease of 5/- in the shoe trade wage.

The Parish Council

From 1870 to 1894 the affairs of the village were in the hands of the two Overseers elected annually from the Parish Meeting. When the Local Government Act of 1894 came into force, a special meeting was convened on December 4th of that year for the purpose of electing a Parish Council. Eight nominations were received, one more than the required number, so one man withdrew his name.

“Mr. J. Goosey, Overseer, said the first business to be done was to elect a chairman and he proposed the Rector, which was seconded by Mr. T. Dickerson and carried.”

The Rev. C. E. Drew held the office of chairman for the next twelve years.

The method of election of councillors was by nominations from the parish meeting, and voting by show of hands. A short time was allowed before the voting so that candidates could be questioned about their policies. A poll by secret ballot was not often demanded on grounds of expense, though it was occasionally called for. In 1937 this method was adopted permanently, as at the previous Annual Parish Meeting it was suspected that someone had cast more votes than the seven he was entitled to.

“…..it was resolved….that in future the election by show of hands be dispensed with and that the election be by ballot.”

No election has been necessary in Wymington since 1950 as interest in public affairs declined. The council now has nine members, most of whom have been co-opted on.

The early councillors at their monthly meetings took their duties seriously, recording dignified thanks for the honour they felt at being elected. They were thanked by the chairman, who in turn “was eulogised at the end of his year of office.”

It was the practice of the council to elect the vice-chairman as chairman the following year:

“Mr. Mason moved that a standing order be adopted by the council that the vice-chairman should be appointed to fill the chair the following year.” (17th July 1925)

On July 1st 1954 this minute was rescinded, resulting in the verbal resignation of the man who had expected to become the next chairman.

The Overseers still retained their office even after becoming parish councillors, and two were still elected annually, but from the council, not the parish meeting. They were empowered to collect the special rates of the village, including street lighting, the poor rate and a sanitary rate. Wymington came under the Union of Wellingborough in Northamptonshire and the Overseers were the parish representatives to that Board of Guardians, and they administered poor relief in the village until 1929, when their office was abolished. Their work was then taken over by the Public Assistance Committees set up by the County Councils.

In 1900 it was proposed that an Assistant Overseer be appointed for Wymington. The clerk to the Parish Council was offered the position with a salary increase of £10 to cover the extra work. His first job was to draw up jury and voters lists and to collect the rates. The amount collected in the parish at that time was about £50 annually and it was divided between the Lighting and Watching Committee and the General Purposes Committee. The clerk retained this double office for three years, when a separate rate collector and Assistant Overseer was appointed at a salary of £20 a year. The position of the Overseers then appeared to be only nominal, apart from dealing with the poor relief.

The clerk’s salary at this time was £15 and the amount had not risen twenty years later when his office was again amalgamated with than of Assistant Overseer, with again £10 extra annually. Occasionally he earned additional amounts for special tasks, such as the transcribing of the Parish Award and copying the Award Map, when his fee was £5. (The parish was enclosed in 1811.) A circular had been sent out by the Rural Council in December 1897, questioning the safe custody of parish documents, so it was decided that Wymington should have copies of theirs. There was dissension as to where the original Award should be kept. The rector proposed it should remain in the church, but a motion was carried on June 14th 1898 that it should be kept in the council’s safe. The same chapel member of the council had previously asked for it to be kept in the chapel, but this was defeated. Dr. Fowler, chairman of the County Records Committee requested the loan of the Award for a copy to be made, or for its deposit at Bedford, but it was not until 1931, five years later, that he was allowed to borrow it for one month. It was returned to the council’s safe, and in spite of several requests, it was not until 1948 that the map and documents were deposited with the County Archivist. She had asked that the old minute books should also be sent, but Miss Godber had retired before they were sent for safe keeping in 1970. Photostat copies of the map are available now, in a few minutes and for a few shillings.

The parish clerk’s £15 a year seems a comparatively high wage considering it was only a part-time job entailing one monthly meeting and correspondence. It may have been that clerical workers were still at a premium then, and possible that the council transacted more business by letter. But some working men had to support families on little more than 15/- weekly. The clerk’s salary today is £36 yearly and he attends six meetings, with a very occasional extra one. Much of the council’s business is dealt with by telephone, and the minutes are much less detailed than the most meticulous recordings of the early clerks. Then, all proposals, counter-proposals and amendments were noted and the number of votes, names of councillors voting were set down in detail.

The Parish Meeting

Once the sole vehicle of local government in the village now arouses so little interest that on one occasion recently, only one member of the public attended. Twos and threes are common.

The early annual parish meetings were scenes of lively debate, with as many as eighty parishioners attending; the average attendance for years was over fifty, but this gradually declined.

On only two occasions have there been big meetings with heated debates.

The first was in 1965 when there was a large and angry gathering; a Tenants and Ratepayers Association had been formed to resist the steep rent rises imposed when the Rural Council was building its new houses in the village. Brian Parkyn, the then M.P. for North Bedfordshire, attended and promised his support for the tenants. However, nothing was done to keep the rents down, as it was pointed out that the new building had to be financed partly from rent rises. This caused great anger from the old council house tenants, and may have been in part responsible for some of the friction evident between incoming families and the old tenants. The Parish Council supported the Tenants’ Association and attended a meeting held in discussion with Rural Council representatives who included the Housing Manager, and Mr. D. Matthews, the Sanitary Engineer and Surveyor. It was a particularly outspoken meeting, but nothing concrete emerged apart from a promise that more care would be taken over the selection and placing of the incoming families. There have been two major rent rises since 1965, first a 16% rise, followed a year later by 10%. The present rent, including rates, for a three bedroomed house in South Grove is £3.18.6d. When these houses were first occupied in 1953, the rent and rates came to £1.2.6d.

The second time a large number of villagers attended the Annual Parish Meeting was in March 1969, when the question of the siting of the third London Airport was discussed. An overwhelming proportion of the sixty people present was opposed to Thurleigh; only five were in favour.