We, ‘the Waggon Gang’ have what we see as some vital and enjoyable work in hand. We are working to preserve the regionally important collection of farm waggons, tipcarts and timber nibs (used in forestry to move large tree trunks, probably to the local sawmill) and the associated farm implements displayed at the Old Prison at Northleach and owed by Cotswold District Council. We generally work fortnightly on a Wednesday morning. Preservation is the name of our game.
Our aims:
- We will continue with our preservation work so generations now and to come can appreciate these magnificent horse drawn waggons, carts and timber nibs. We hope to do more work on the farm implements too, if our time and energy permit. The collection holds a wide range of machinery produced a century and more ago made by nationally known agricultural manufacturers. More importantly it has a good selection made in the workshops of Kells of Gloucester & Ross. The larger Kells seed drills especially need some work. There is a superb self-delivery reaper, currently in pieces, that needs some attention, also a hayloader. In fact it all needs lots of TLC and soon!
- We are producing an individual file on as many waggons as we can, with additional photographs, based on the available material and including an update of the preservation treatment that we have carried out recently.
- We believe that it’s important that the younger folk know how their food is produced and how so many people struggled to produce it in the past – our agricultural past and the machines used in fields long ago need to be remembered and respected. The ingenuity of their creation and the hard work in using them needs to be recorded. We can only understand farming today by looking at its development over the last century and before. If we are busy when you come round do have a chat with us. The collection needs interpretation.
- Memories of WORKING WITH FARM HORSES. We realise that the number of people who worked with farm horses is fast declining. We want to capture memories of working with these wonderful horses and the equipment used in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, even early 1960s perhaps. I just about remember my own grandfather’s last two working horses in the early 1950s – Boxer and Prince – to be retired and replaced by the ever popular ‘little grey Fergie’. I also remember his last horse drawn equipment – I would have been about 5 years old.
Can you help us or do you know anyone who can with this project?
Do you recognise any of the waggons we have at Northleach and did you work with any of them?
Did you work with farm horses in the Cotswolds, or Gloucestershire or maybe further afield in the UK?
Do you have any personal stories of working with farm horses that you’d like to share with us?
We would love to hear your stories or perhaps you’d like to write them down for us, or have us write them down for you and for us to keep a copy of your memories?
Please get in touch:
Geoff Dubber. geoffdubber@gmail.com Tel 01451 844183
Simon Colbeck simoncolbeck@msn.com
