Farming Memories by Winnie Bell

Winnie Bell (née Jefferson) and John Cockburn, West End Farm, Edderside, 1930s.

Taking butter and eggs to Maryport Market

The butter was always churned on a Wednesday in our house at Edderside because Maryport market was on a Friday. I suppose the butter had to set.  The churn was a barrel, four feet high and two feet wide. 

Cream was separated each day from the milk and kept for a week and put into the churn, which was turned with a handle for an hour or sometimes longer. You knew when it was butter by the sound. The butter was taken out and put into cold water from the pump; it was washed and washed until all the buttermilk was out of it and then salted. 

Mary and Jinnie Pattinson with Jim and Winnie Bell,
Edderside, 1930s.

My mother weighed a pound of butter and shaped it with butter pats.  The butter was laid onto   greaseproof   papers, which when folded were higher than the butter so that the portion could be lifted by the paper without touching the butter.  All the papers had to be marked with a lb mark.  The butter was then packed into a special butter basket.  The first layer of butter was put in and covered with a board which rested on a ledge on the inside of the basket and then the next layer added.   The basket had handles at each end, as it was too heavy to lift for one person when it was full. 

Winnie Bell, 1939

On Friday mornings my mother and aunt packed the butter and any spare eggs, usually about two dozen, into the trap.  My mother Sarah Jefferson and Aunt Isabella Pattinson always wore a veil, which covered their faces when going to market; I don’t know whether it was just fashion or whether the veils helped to keep their hats on.

Hannah, Lizzie, Alan and Winnie Bell, Edderside, 1940s.

They used to go through Allonby and a fellow there called Punch had a donkey, which always terrified my Aunt Isabel’s old grey pony.  When the pony saw Punch’s donkey it used to go like the clappers and my mother and aunt couldn’t control the pony and trap – a funny sight I imagine. When they got to the market square in Maryport they all had their own places – a wooden bench.  It must have been starvation cold in winter.  The pony was taken to some stables to have a bite to eat and stayed there until they were ready to come back home.

Postcard of Maryport Market

People came round to buy the butter mostly the same customers each week. When they first got there someone would come round to ask how much you were going to charge this week.  Probably a shilling or one and three a pound.  Sometimes people would scrap along the butter with their thumbnail and say “a bit salty this week Missis”.

Shopping in Maryport, Mary Pattinson, Sarah Jefferon and Ann Messenger.

Once the butter and eggs were sold we would all go for our dinner. We went to a place in Maryport in Wood Street; it was Mrs. Skelton’s Café.  There was a big square table in not a very big room, which was covered with scones and cakes and teacakes.  It would be about a shilling for our dinner but if you wanted meat or pies it was one and sixpence.

Then we used to go to get our groceries at Nixon’s on High street.  I can still remember the smell of ground coffee.  We would return home to Edderside in the pony and trap about three o’clock in the afternoon.

Winnie Bell (1918-2011)

From 'Plain People'
Holme St Cuthbert History Group, 2004.