We are sharing a monthly look at the farm diary of John Foss, written from his dairy farm in Kingston Russell in 1851.
November 1851
The penultimate month of the year, November is frosty and clear, although there are some stormy nights throughout. The railroad continues to be a topic in the village, and it seems the plan is to take down Pitcombe farmhouse:
“Mr Henning & Mr Foot & Master Here in house looking at the map for to settle about the railroad said the Home is to come down”.
As the building is still standing today, we know that these plans don’t go ahead!
Cheese, glorious cheese
Much of the month is taken up with making, selling and transporting cheese. A new customer, Mr Style of Weymouth orders half a ton, or 10 crot, at 30 shillings a crot. When John delivers the cheese, Mr Style puts in an order for 10 more the next week. Villagers and family drop by the farm to buy rounds of cheese throughout November, particularly for “Coloured Cheese”.
This is most likely a type of blue Dorset cheese, similar to Blue Vinney, although there was a trend for dyed cheeses in the 19th century. Some, perhaps less honest, dairy farmers might colour their milk with natural dyes in order to imitate the creamy, orange cheeses of Gloucestershire and Leicestershire.
Family Memorials
John lost his first wife, Emma, in 1848 possibly as a result of complications in childbirth – her death is registered only five days after the birth of their son Edwin. Sadly, Edwin died two years later, and this was followed by the death of Emma and John’s fifth child John in September of the same year.
A year later, John writes that “Mr Ropers man been here to cut the Inscription for John & Edwin on their mother’s head stone”. The mason visits again on Saturday “to black & finish to [sic] lettering” on the memorial. Unfortunately, this is not the last tragedy we know of in John’s life. His second wife Rachel dies in 1858, after only nine years of marriage.
Big Decisions
This month, John is due to pay his quarterly rent to his master, Richard Symes. When he does, John asked about Richard’s plans for the coming year. It seems that the two men had a somewhat stormy working relationship:
“he askd me if I meant to take the cows again I said yes if we could agree I said if yould not do for us go on in anger with each other he said no it would not”
Richard said that he would not be making any changes to the price, and John leaves to consider the offer.
A week later, on the 27th, they meet at the farm to barter:
“he wanted the same rent as last year 9/10 per cow I hesitated about giving it for some time”
Mr Symes throws two sacks of wheat and barley into the bargain and promises to do what he can to help the cattle. Finally, they reach a decision: “I said I would take them again on the same terms as last year so we agreed”. Much ado about nothing, perhaps?
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Interested in learning more about John Foss? Explore the other months of his 1851 from the list below:
Another interesting month. Crot caught my eye which I think should probably be cwt
I remain hopeful that the blogs will continue to the end of the diary
Reading my comment again, it does seem rather critical which was in no way intended. I have an interest in weights and measures world wide and was excited to see what I thought was some Dorset dialect. My apologies.