Hopgrove Farm

I have been asked to write about my time at Hopgrove Farm, Hopgrove, York. My father retired from farming, when I was 22 years old, so I took a tractor drivers job with William Thompson who owned and farmed Hopgrove. William Thompson a Agricultural feed merchant and I believe he had also been the Lord Mayor of York, although I am not so sure about the lord mayor facts, perhaps some one can enlighten me. William Thompson kept Pedigree Ayrshire cattle, and also did a lot of showing and won numerous prizes. I should think the cow men to-day who are milking perhaps 200 head of cows would be quite envious of the staff at Hopgrove who had a staff of a first and second cow men plus me the tractor man helping to feed the young stock. The milking herd consisting of perhaps forty cows at the most, and of course this all carried out in warm Byers in the winter, far removed from some of the draughty parlours to-day. The young stock that were being reared for showing were kept in separate boxes tied up and really had a lot of time spent on them, when they had grown a fair bit of horn they had horn trainer attached to their horns, which consisted of some mettle cups secured to the tip of their horns, from which a cord went to a pulley fastened to the ceiling then down to a weight, this allowed the animal to get up and down with out any discomfort. These horn trainers would be kept on till Bob Lockhart thought that the horns looked perfect for showing, I can also remember a board being placed under the udder to give it the perfect shape. I would think that the Ayrshire below has had Horn Trainers on. Now to the land, The land I would describe as a Sandy Loam, which if it was windy and perhaps just been sown with Sugar beet, the soil was known to drift, like snow drifts. The land as far as I can remember wasn’t so much above sea level and I have known the Dyke's back up, and if in wet weather you happened to get the tractor stuck, woe betide you if you started rocking the tractor backwards and forwards to much you were likely to go down onto shifting sand. Unfortunately William Thompson sold out to a Thomas Brooksbank where I retained the position as tractor Man and lived in with the family, Thomas and his wife made me welcome to their home, and I enjoyed my life and work there. But once again a change was coming because Thomas Brooksbank stretched himself financially and he sold out to a chap from West Riding We didn’t see eye to eye from the word go, I was moved out of the house into the Bothy, and one day when I was sowing a sixteen acre field with grass seed with the fiddle drill and I was really striding out, the boss came took the fiddle drill off me and started to run and said that is how it should be done. So as I said we didn’t see eye to eye, I left!! John