Hired help on the farm

Most farmers had to have hired help and also a maid was needed as the farmer’s wife had to feed the hired men and wash all their bedding besides looking after her own family.

Hired lads at Edderside, 1930s

These men and maids were hired for six months.  At the end of six months, bad workers and farmers could terminate the contract. In the 1930s, West Cumberland was a depressed area so these lads and lasses were pleased to find work, though their wages were very poor. Boys and girls might be only fourteen when they first started as hired help and often had to move away from their homes to find work.

Hired lads washing cart wheels at Lesson Hall

Work was constant.  The only time they were free was between milking times on a Sunday.  Other days they finished work at around 5.30 pm having started at 6.30 am.

Hiring fairs were held twice a year at Whitsuntide and Martinmas.   Many towns including Carlisle, Cockermouth, Penrith and Wigton held hiring fairs.  During the morning the farm workers would meet with the farmers in the market place. Those wishing to be hired chewed a piece of straw as a sign they were available for hire.  Farm workers without straw were known to be “stoppen on”.

 

Eric Laws was a hired lad during the late 20s to early 30s. He used to go to the hiring fairs at Cockermouth, which were always held on Mondays. He remembers standing between Cockermouth Bridge and Station Street waiting for a farmer to say, ‘is you for hire lad?’ If you said ‘yes’ you would start bargaining about a wage. When you had struck a deal you would shake hands and the farmer would give you a shilling to seal the deal.  The shilling was known as a fairing.

Cockermouth Hiring Fair

How well the farmer’s wife would feed you was an important thing to be considered. The lads would meet and say to each other, “is ta stoppen on?” and  “what swort of a meat shop is’t?”  The farmers who didn’t feed their hired help well soon got known as a bad meat shop.

Eric Laws remembers one lad who struck a deal with a farmer who promised him beef for every dinner, but alas he got liver every time.  After two or three weeks of this, he went out one night and, on his return, the farmer said to him, “Whatst night doin lad?” and the lad replied, “Master its, starlight and misty, moonlight and frosty, knee deep in snow, raining most tremendous”.  “Nay lad, niver”, said the farmer. “Ay its true, as much as beef is liver!” said the lad.

The hired lads all had small trunks usually made of tin which they kept their few possessions in. Some of the lads only had the working clothes they stood up in and possibly a spare shirt or two and extra socks.  Apparently some of them didn’t wear underpants and their trousers were never washed.  The better off lads had clothes they could wear for best.  Sacks would be tied around their shoulders to keep the rain off.  If they got very wet and dirty, some of them would struggle to find dry, clean clothes to change into.

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