DERELICT SUNDAY

I was beginning to suffer DSWS - otherwise known as Derelict Sunday Withdrawal Symptoms, so after a good service at Church, followed by watching "Songs of Praise" with my Mum, Mr. HCB and I went off looking for dereliction.

It was a grey, dank and miserable day, with mist over the fields, so we decided that we would just drive up to Liddington, where we knew there was lots of dereliction, because it wasn't the day to be joy-riding around the Wiltshire countryside.  

I don't remember blipping this particular machine before, but it's obvious from the grass and ivy growing all around the various wheels and discs, that we think are harrows, that this hasn't moved for a long time and is very rusty!  It's covered by a large blue tarpaulin, with the name of "Parmiter" on the side, the name of an agricultural machinery company, so perhaps a few years ago, someone was hopeful that it would still be used at sometime in the future.

This area at Liddington is mostly farm land with a big house standing on a nearby plot, but we know it isn't the farmhouse because I've spoken to the owner when we were wandering around sometime ago, but in this particular area, there are lots of derelict farm machines and buildings.  

We both thought that this was a harrow, an implement for breaking up clods of soil, to provide a finer finish, or in farmer's language, "a good tilth".  It's obvious that this particular one would have been pulled by a tractor, because there is a tow bar but they were originally pulled by horses, mules or oxen or sometimes even by manual labourers.  

It's interesting to think that one of my relatives may have pulled something like this, because several of my ancestors lived in this area and were noted on various census documents as "Agricultural Labourers"!

Of course, it may not even be a harrow - so perhaps someone looking at this may know what it is and let us know.

"Organic farming has been shown 
     to provide major benefits 
          for wildlife and the wider environment. 
The best that can be said about      
     genetically engineered crops 
          is that they will now be monitored 
               to see how much damage they cause."   
Prince Charles