Many of our ancestors are listed in the UK Census as being agricultural labourers.  I have looked for an explanation for this and I think the best can be found in a book by J.F.C. Harrison”Learning and Living 1790-1960″.

Agricultural Labourers

An occupation often referred to in the census is agricultural labourer.   Agricultural labourers or farm servants often lived in the small villages and went to work in the farmer’s fields during the day.  They worked long hours during the summer months, often from 4.00am to 8.00pm, after possibly walk four to eight miles from village to field.  And during the winter months, they often found they could go for days or weeks without work.  They were often hired on Martinmas Day which is the time when autumn wheat seeding was completed in early November.  Towns often had hiring fairs where farm labourers could seek new posts.  Some of the larger farms had their own cottages but most hired their labourers from the surrounding villages.

Farm Cottages

Life in the labourers cottage in the 1840’s was not pleasant and quite primitive.   Your housing was perhaps was a one or two-roomed cottage with a scullery or kitchen often added-on.  Some also had a shed attached to the house for livestock – imagine the smell, especially in summer.  With such large families, there were usually several sleeping in each bed.  When there was not more room, often the oldest was ‘kicked out’, and had to find work and own accommodation.  There was no sanitation of any sort, unless you were near a stream or pond which would have been used.  So, it was a hole in the ground or a bucket or tub in the house which had to be emptied often – usually as manure for the garden.  Water was collected from the streams if there was no well in the centre of the village.  So sickness from the water which may have been contaminated by effluent was widespread with diarrhoea and other disorders quite prevalent.

Most families had pigs and these were the main source of meat except for the old hens which had stopped laying.  If you had a cow, its milk was used for butter and cheese rather than for the milk itself.  Most often had small vegetable patches and a lot of the villages had commune gardens at the edge of the village which people could use.  The main staples were cabbage and carrots, along with boiled wheat and pot barley used in stews and soups.