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Cley Farm

1961 , Cley-next-the-Sea (Norfolk)

Cat no. 216911

A day in the life of a farmer, Ray Allen, at his farm in Cley.

Norfolk farmer, Ray Allen, wakes to a new day of tending his farm. Situated next to the church in Cley, Mr Allen lights up a cigarette to accompany him on his early morning rounds; checking his pigs and unlocking the barns. Regular cups of tea provided by Mrs Allen, as well as cigarettes, sustain the farmer before his employee, Mary, arrives. Despite being a woman Mary works as hard as a man, and so Mr Allen pays her the same as a man. The first job for the pair is to feed the pigs, piglets and the sows on the hill. A final cup of tea gives the farmer a chance to check the post for his sugar beet cheque and receives business phone calls. The next job is to load muck on the trailer and to haul it up to an upper field. This drive provides a perfect chance to buy some more cigarettes from the village store. After the muck is shovelled onto the field, rocks are removed and used to built roadways to and from the fields. Mr. Allen's artistic side is revealed as the farmer uses oddly shaped stones to decorate the wall that runs along his home, as well has fixing part of an old plough onto the roof of the farm house. After lunch eaten along the hedgerows, Allen, fixes a fence to keep out the cows. Mary rotorvates a field ready for its crop of parsley as Allen ploughs the hedgerows of another field. Dying gooseberry bracken is no match for Allen's tractor driven swipe. The farmer borrowed the machine from a friend and keeps up this sharing attitude by welding another friend's broken plough instead of watching television. This tiring day eventually comes to an end asleep in the living room, by his wife, underneath the day's newspapers.

Featured Buildings

A.M. Stangroom General Store

Keywords

Farming; Ploughing; Rotorvating; Smoking

Manifestations

Cley Farm

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