He must have been one of the last surviving of the E. Riding Horselads - the hiring
Fairs died out late 1920s/early 1930s. There was a very strict
hierachy on the Wolds farms; the Foreman was in charge of all the
labourers, "Bullockies" and grooms, who looked after the riding and
driving horses; the Waggoner was in charge of the Ploughmen and Lads
who worked and looked after the working horses.
At the Hirings (Martinmas) each one would negotiate with the farmers
for a position and a wage for the next 12 months; this was a binding
contract and could only be terminated by the hired man going into the
forces (and receiving his pay to date) or becoming unemployable
because of injury or serious illness - for temporary illness the
employer was responsible for care and treatment (as all the Horsemen
and Lads lived in and had full keep in addition to pay) and there was
no deduction from contracted pay (consequently the early Agricultural
Workers' Union did not get a lookin).
Next in line from the Waggoner was Thirdman (Thoddy), then Fourthman
(Fowerty) and even more on large farms. Each man had a Lad who looked
after the Man's team and his own team (pair) of horses - at the end of
the line was Least Lad (Tommy Owt) who looked after older horses who
operated the muck-cart/fodder waggon and they learned the art of
ploughing.
At ploughing time, hay time and harvest time the Lads were up at first
light seeing to the teams. From getting married until relatively
recently Dad had an alarm clock set for 6am - he *didn't* get up until
the alarm clock went off (the night staff at Abbey Dingle were quite
taken aback when he first went there in August 2003 when he asked for
a cuppa before taking his dog for a walk at 6.30am!) Mum said that on
the morning of their honeymoon (they married on June 1st) Dad woke her
with a nudge in the ribs, as the dawn chorus was in full song, saying
"Eeh Mary, list to them bods, don't they sound grand, let's go for a
walk."!!!
Dad was hired out on leaving school (aged 13/14) and was a waggoner by
the time he was 18. The Waggoner was always a strong man, both physically (Dad
was carrying 20 stone sacks of beans at the age of 16, 5 times the
current limit re Handling and Lifting Regulations) and in personality;
there was one night in a Wolds pub when someone placed his empty glass
upside down on the bar - this meant that he would take on all-comers -
Dad just downed his pint and placed his glass upside down next to it -
the other backed off immediately, potentially nasty incident averted.
Much more about the Horselads can be found in the book "Amongst Farm Horses:
The Horselads of East Yorkshire" by
Steven Caunce.
Some of Steven Caunce's writing can be found on
this BBC web page.