Farmer Peter Bird recalling the rhythm of the farming community from the 1920's to the 1990's is just one of a number of oral history interviews collected by a countywide community group.
Mr Bird, born in Bugbrooke in the 1920's, talks about how important every bit of corn collected was.
His memories are part of a collection of 70 oral history interviews recorded by Northamptonshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England).
Since May 2008 the group, based in the Hunsbury Hill Centre in Harksome Hill, West Hunsbury, has been researching, recording and transcribing the experiences of the county's rural communities.
The interviews capture local dialects and memories and provide a fascinating window into a rural way of life that has largely disappeared.
They are now available at Northamptonshire County Council's Record Office, either as written transcripts or digital sound files.
Mr Bird's interview reads: 'Corn, years ago... it was so precious. After we'd raked it, we'd take the stook away out of the middle of the field and then the ladies and people from the village would come, at weekends and at nights, with little bags and baskets and they would glean.
'They would... pick up all the heads so that they'd got corn of their own that they could do what they wanted with. When we'd cut the oats and the barley, we'd pull the hen roosts with a chain (and) a horse, into the fields that had got the oats and the barley. We'd move them into there so that the hens then had got all the corn to feed on.
'Once they'd got acclimatised, oh they'd be all round the field picking the corn up and we'd leave them there. They used to love blackberries. And at the end of the season when they'd had all the corn, we'd pull them back into the grass fields again so that we'd got the field then to plough up for the next year.'
For more information on the work of Northamptonshire ACRE visit http://northantsacre.org.uk/
Mr Bird, born in Bugbrooke in the 1920's, talks about how important every bit of corn collected was.
His memories are part of a collection of 70 oral history interviews recorded by Northamptonshire ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England).
Since May 2008 the group, based in the Hunsbury Hill Centre in Harksome Hill, West Hunsbury, has been researching, recording and transcribing the experiences of the county's rural communities.
The interviews capture local dialects and memories and provide a fascinating window into a rural way of life that has largely disappeared.
They are now available at Northamptonshire County Council's Record Office, either as written transcripts or digital sound files.
Mr Bird's interview reads: 'Corn, years ago... it was so precious. After we'd raked it, we'd take the stook away out of the middle of the field and then the ladies and people from the village would come, at weekends and at nights, with little bags and baskets and they would glean.
'They would... pick up all the heads so that they'd got corn of their own that they could do what they wanted with. When we'd cut the oats and the barley, we'd pull the hen roosts with a chain (and) a horse, into the fields that had got the oats and the barley. We'd move them into there so that the hens then had got all the corn to feed on.
'Once they'd got acclimatised, oh they'd be all round the field picking the corn up and we'd leave them there. They used to love blackberries. And at the end of the season when they'd had all the corn, we'd pull them back into the grass fields again so that we'd got the field then to plough up for the next year.'
For more information on the work of Northamptonshire ACRE visit http://northantsacre.org.uk/
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