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A History of Newmarket Farm in Twelve Objects

Object 5 – Agricultural Labourers

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Object 5 – Agricultural Labourers

• Money

Only 2 halfpennies and 2 farthings were excavated from the cottage site, all from reign of George V

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Money – Very low earnings; how poor were they?

Purchasing power of agricultural labourer;

• Earnings hard to calculate
  • Records for wages not known to exist for Newmarket Farm labourers
  • Wages higher at harvest time, lower in winter
  • Wages varied greatly by locality
  • Extra income from various sources
  • Remote location implies less earning opportunities (longer travelling times – less free time)
  • Poaching
    • Punishment if caught very much higher in 1830 than in 1930, so more likely in later times
    • also, shepherds did not like to be deprived of their perks by lower status agricultural labourers
      • but, the widespread use of barbed wire after WW1 to contain sheep, etc, meant fewer visits by farmer or shepherd, so chances of getting caught were greatly reduced
  • Increasingly cheap foreign imports of food, especially with advent of refrigerated ships, meant farm profits – and hence wages – dropped
• Expenditure very difficult to assess
  • Did they pay rent for cottage?
  • Did the farmer provide extras such as food and drink at harvest time?
  • Remote location implies higher costs (fewer money saving opportunities)
  • Types of expenditure varied enormously over 100+ years
    • Baths in hot water were not considered healthy till mid-nineteenth century (soap taxed till 1853)
    • Cooking over an open fire or range, replaced by paraffin stove by 20th century
    • Lighting by candle replaced by bright paraffin lamps
    • Industrial mass production reduced the cost of goods
      • Woolworth’s in 1920’s (the original equivalent of today’s pound shops) enabled people to buy more luxury household items
  • Individual families;
    • some never spent money on alcohol
    • some didn’t spend any money on toys and treats for children
• Some published sources have attempted to make general statements
  • 1670-1850;
    • Situation probably more or less stable in UK
    • but dropped in Sussex;
      • http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/papers/farm_wages_&_living_standards.pdf
  • Life as a farm labourer in 1750;
    • better than in 1900;
      • http://web.jhgs.bucks.sch.uk/SiteAssets/SitePages/History%20Projects/Was%20Britain%20a%20better%20place%20to%20live%20in%201900%20compared%20to%201750.pdf
  • After 1850 big gap between agricultural & non-agricultural wages
    • by 1900 gap continued to increase
      • Factory workers situation improved, but not agricultural workers;
        • From above sources, and confirmed by others

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Object 5 – Agricultural Labourers

Edward Phipps – featured in Daily Express shortly after leaving Newmarket Farm

• Edward Phipps worked for less than the dole;
  • As a result of this report, Daily Express readers sent his children lots of presents for their best Christmas ever!

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How did Reg Latham get Edward Phipps’ job?

• Edward Phipps (1934-1938) worked with horses – like all those before him;
  • Painting below, by Douglas Holland of horse ploughing opposite Downs Hotel, Woodingdean, shows Newmarket Hill in background
• The decorative hand-forged wrought iron hoof pick we excavated could have been from any farm labourer since the cottage was built

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How did Reg Latham get Edward Phipps’ job?

• In 1938 the government required farms to increase production in preparation for the likely war with Germany;
  • So the farm for which he worked bought two tractors to meet this demand
  • On Reginald Latham’s marriage certificate, his occupation was: tractor driver
• The shiny metal piston rod excavated from the ‘cubby hole’ (shed) may have been from a tractor

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Previous: Object 4 – Census Records

Next: Object 6 – Heating, Cooking, Laundry