Wed 16th [June] Jo leveling the moss & getting turf for Hannah Gill.
The Farming Year: June
Commentary:
The height of summer: June 1773 was a warm and largely dry month, after a cold, slow Spring. The crops, both the grain crops and the meadow grass for hay, were growing fast – weeding the corn was one of the tasks this month. Each year June saw the annual ‘beast fairs’ at Cockermouth, key events in the local farming economy, where livestock were bought and sold. This year Fletcher sold two heifers to John Jackson, a beast buyer from Ulverston, walking them to Ennerdale Bridge to hand them over.
Another regular event in June each year was repairing the local roads, when each household contributed several days ‘statute labour’ under the direction of the person serving as the township’s Surveyor of Highways that year. The month also took Fletcher to Hesket Newmarket near Caldbeck for the quarterly business meeting of Quakers from across Cumberland, held there each June.
In this month’s extracts, the ‘lads’ are Fletcher’s sons, then teenagers, who were busy at ‘the pitt’, his attempt to mine lead in on his property at Mosser, a venture which came to little. ‘Joseph’ was Joseph Mitchell, a young married man with a baby daughter, who Fletcher employed as his farmhand for five years. Other people mentioned are ‘Old’ John Allason, Fletcher’s brother-in-law, 14 years his senior; Rachel Wigham, a Quaker minister from Northumberland, whose daughter was married to a local Quaker at Little Broughton, near Cockermouth; Hannah Gill, who was Fletcher’s wife’s sister and lived close by, and Thomas Ritson, a joiner and furniture maker from Branthwaite, near Dean.
In the 18th century, most of Cumbria used peat ('turf') for heating and cooking. In West Cumbria, though, some inhabitants - of whom Fletcher was one - had access to outcrops of coal - in Fletcher's case from nearby Dean Moor (about 6kms away). However, the entry for 16 June suggests Fletcher's farmhand Jo had been sent to cut peat for the use of Fletcher's sister-in-law. The reference to 'levelling the moss' suggests he was only taking off the top layer of peat, possibly a prelude to drainage/reclamation work on the moss between Mosser and Pardshaw.
The illustration shows peat-stacking at Witherslack, in the Cartmel peninsular.
Diary
Tue 1st June 1773. Joseph threshing. Lads working at the pitt. A cloudy day with some showers of rain.
Wed 2nd. Went to the beast fair. Cattle sold very well. Sold one five year old geld heffer for six pounds to Postlethwait for Jackson. A very hot sultry day. Gardener here.
Thu 3rd. Wife gone to Meeting. A pretty fresh NE wind; not so very hot as yesterday. Sold another geld heffer to the same & for the same price. Joseph & John gone with them to Innerdale Bridge.
Sat 5th. Went to Cragg-end in the afternoon. Old John Allason very lame. Walks about the houses and into the fields. Can get nothing from home. He wants some alterations in his will.
Sun 6th. At Meeting. Rachel Wigham there. She preached very well: a sound & able minister of the Gospel. A fine shower and looks like rain.
Tue 8th. Lads all gone to the highways. Took two carts and two men to each, which will answer to two days' work. Fine weather.
Fri 11th. Sent two carts & four hands with them to the highways.
Sat 12th. Sent to the highways the same as yesterday, which finishes the six days statute work for this year. Fine weather with some showers of rain.
Sun 13th. At the Meeting; the Select Preparative Meeting after. At Whinney with wife in the afternoon. Warm weather.
Tue 15th. Very dry, warm weather.
Wed 16th. Jo leveling the moss & getting turf for Hannah Gill.
Sat 19th. Joseph not here this day: gone to a funeral. Thomas Ritson two lads here about the window shutts. Fine warm weather. T.R. [Thomas Ritson] came himself about 5 p.m. & lay on the paint &c.
Mon 21st. Wife gone to Cockermouth. Lads working at pitt. Joseph hedging. Showry.
Tue 22nd. Fine weather. About weeding the corn.
Wed 23rd. Weather warm attended with showers. About ditto.
Thu 24th. Sett forward this morning about 5 for the Quarterly Meeting at Heskett in Coldbeck. Got there a little past nine. Attended the meeting. Lodged at the inn.
Sat 26th. Came home yesterday about 6. Endured the journey pretty well, tho’ I find myself fatigued & a little listless this day. Weather continues very fine.
Sun 27th. At Meeting. Nothing remarkable except a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the evening, but it was cloudy so did not see it.
Mon 28th. Did not go to Cockermouth. About weeding the corn. Still very fine weather. The grass now grow very fast but was late in getting forward on account of the cold spring &c.
Extracts from The Diary of Isaac Fletcher of Underwood, Cumberland, 1756-1781, edited by Angus J L Winchester (Kendal, 1994).
