Details Containing Books Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay

Title	:	Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay
Author	:	George Ewart Evans
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 136 pages
Published	:	May 29th 1975 by Faber Faber (first published January 1st 1965)
Categories	:	History. Nonfiction. European Literature. British Literature. Cultural

Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay Paperback | Pages: 136 pages

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One of the great books on rural life - notable for the quiet precision of its description of tasks, tools, and most of all social organizations. These include the "companies" formed by farm workers which negotiated with farmers to do the harvest in a given period, producing complex term sheets in which all eventualities were accomodated but a dignity of stature pervaded. As soon as the contract was signed, the status of landlord and laborer (for none of these were vis a vis one another quietly but firmly altered - but there was a clear hierarchy within the Company, with Lord of the Harvest, Lady of the Harvest (both men, btw), Men, Lads, and Boys.)
It's just packed with this material, often in the words of old men and women still living in the 1950s whose grandparents were born during the Napoleonic wars (in nicely reproduced Suffolk dialect which contributed mightily to American, it seems, particularly "old West" American - the use of "some" as an intensifier - "that Christine O'Donnell is some lady" - getting all riled up - skillet, a utensil which Evans says is unknown elsewhere in England under that name.
Here's a sample of the mind behind all this. Evans gives a beautiful description of the "drawing matches" held at country fairs - a ploughing competition showing which plowman could plough a single absolutely straight furrow.
"Yet is a straight furrow essential essential in working the land; especially as the furrow is so quickly harrowed and flattened out afterwards? If one asked a ploughman htis question a tolerant smile would probably be his first reaction; then he would perhaps say after a pause which he would need to reflect on a question that could never be put....[more tk].
Ewart Evans was a Welsh writer with a grammar school education who supported himself in the 1930s as a schoolteacher - he had a bad experience in the RAF, and came back to postwar London with just occasional substitute teaching to maintain himself and his family. His wife got a job offer to be headmistress of the village school in Bloxham, Suffolk, and they moved with her - once he got there (all this according to his son's account in the Grauniad http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/...) he recognized that his great subject was the change in lives wrought by farm mechanization and WWI in this village, and his wife agreed to support the family while he researched, collected oral histories and wrote, and took care of the children.
In short, he was the first slacker-househusband.
Except that he came through, with this wonderful book, which was discovered by Faber & Faber (of which his son became chairman).

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Original Title:	Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay
ISBN:	0571063535 (ISBN13: 9780571063536)
Edition Language:	English

Rating Containing Books Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay

Ratings: 4.35 From 65 Users | 11 Reviews

Piece Containing Books Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay

This book is a very good resource for country life in England before World War I, and it's filled with all sorts of obscure pieces of information hard to find elsewhere. Recommended for anyone doing research about this time or place.

One of the great books on rural life - notable for the quiet precision of its description of tasks, tools, and most of all social organizations. These include the "companies" formed by farm workers which negotiated with farmers to do the harvest in a given period, producing complex term sheets in which all eventualities were accomodated but a dignity of stature pervaded. As soon as the contract was signed, the status of landlord and laborer (for none of these were vis a vis one another quietly

Combining solid research, Oral history and a true love of the subject, This book makes plain the amount of sheer brutal hard work expected of the agricultural workers of the past, Whilst still managing to leave you with a wistful sense that something of real value has been lost in the move to mechanised farming. While doing my family tree, I discovered a Great-Grandfather from the area and loved hearing different accounts from the old people of the village. This book was able to paint a precise



Spotted this one on Bettie's list and thought I'd like it. I was right. Enjoyed the descriptions of rural life in England and learned a lot. Shepherds, smugglers, poachers - how they made beer, bread, how they drained fields, fertilized them - all the stories from the locale. Just the kind of book I like, highlighting all the skills and practices now lost to us.

beautifully written and a mine of information on Suffolk life in the days of old england

Clickerty ClickThis is all about the oral history of Suffolk and as such it is fascinating listening to the unpretentious accounts. It's like hearing your great grandparents recount their early lives.BBC blurb - In this week's Archive On Four, historian Alan Dein celebrates the centenary of his mentor George Ewart Evans, collector of Suffolk farming tales. Evans began by chatting to his neighbours over the fireside in the 1950's and transcribing stories about poaching shepherding, smuggling