Friday 21 March 2014

Lucky.

IMG_5721               120 Tom Maud ploughing with Darby Stout on Offas Dyke 

When I was a little girl I spent time on my Grandparents farm up on Offa's Dyke just over the border in Wales. They worked a small holding of 60 acres with a few cows, sheep, geese and chickens. They had three horses, Blossom who was used for small jobs including transporting hay etc around in the cart.  Derby and Stout, pictured above in the 1940’s I think, were used to pull the single furrow plough. I have kept one of their horseshoes over the years which was languishing in the front locker of the boat. As Ruth was painting her own horseshoes for sale I asked her if she would paint this one for us. The cabin boy sat out on the towpath and cleaned all the rust off it, then Ruth took it into her workshop to work her magic on it. We were very pleased with the result.

3 comments:

Dave Winter said...

Wonderful family photo from the past.

Del and Al said...

That looks lovely and lots of memories attached to it I'm sure x

Wozie said...

Thank you both.
I spent many 'holidays' with my Grandparents and their farm animals. Feeding the Chickens and collecting the eggs was a favourite job.
I think this is why I have always liked being outside, so boating suits me very well!