Gwenneth Gascoigne is perhaps the last living person who remembers Old Moor as a working farm. Old Moor was farmed by her parents Willis and Alice Gascoigne, who moved from Lane End Farm in Thurnscoe and moved to Old Moor Farm in 1939, the family remained at Old Moor Farm until 1998.
Gwenneth recalls walking down to the fields with her father, brother and sister and being allowed to ride back on Peter, the cart horse.
Peter was one of the animals who contributed fertilizer to the farm, along with cattle, pigs and hens. The farm utilised a natural cycle – manure from the animals fertilised the fields, which were used to grow crops to feed the animals. No pesticides were used, a model of organic farming which many modern farms are working to return to.
Gwenneth recalls growing up on the farm as ‘at times difficult, but always an adventure’. Her childhood was spent largely without electricity, lighting for the rooms was by Calor Gas Lamps, and she had a small paraffin lamp to go to bed by. Evening entertainment was a battery powered radio.
Laundry without electricity was another challenge. Washing day was a whole day project and a lot of hard manual work. Hot water was boiled in the ‘copper’ and transferred, probably by bucket to a galvanised wash tub. A ‘posser’ (in the right hand picture below) was used to agitate the washing, moved entirely by hand.
The clean washing was put through a ‘wringing machine’ to get as much water out as possible. Laundry was hung outside to dry. Unfortunately for the family, Old Moor Farm was next to a railway line. Gwenneth recalls that sometimes a passing steam train would cover the washing in soot, and the whole lot would have to be washed again.
Harvest time was a community affair. Local children would earn a little extra spending money by helping out with potato picking. The men from the village would come to the farm after their night shift in the mine and Alice would provide them with a hearty breakfast. A Binder (below left) was used for cutting the corn, which was then bound into sheaves and stacked (below right).
Later, the sheaves were man-handled to the threshing machine, the workings of this are described here https://www.1900s.org.uk/threshing.htm
With all these challenges, we can only imagine the excitement that the connection of electricity to the farm buildings and farm house in 1968 brought to 15 year old Gwenneth and her family!