For centuries autumn has been a crucial time for the people of Dorset. A successful harvest with an abundance of crops was literally a matter of life and death for rural communities and their animals. We can see the importance of harvest and the celebrations surrounding it reflected in our collections.
Everyone pitched in
Our records demonstrate how bringing in the harvest required everyone to help. A rental agreement for a tenement and land in Upwey from 1669 includes the provision of a harvest man at harvest time and one for the corn harvest for one day alongside the tenant’s rent.
Almost 150 years later in Bere Regis the Parish Overseers of the Poor were trying to encourage farmers to employ local people to work on the farms. An agreement between parishioners and farmers states agricultural labour from outside the parish was not to be used except carters, shepherds and for getting in the harvest.
In the late 19th century school log books frequently recorded the absence of children due to them helping with haymaking, potato picking, and generally helping with the harvest.
As agricultural technology has developed farmers became more reliant on their machinery than the wider community. This film from the Windrose Rural Media Trust collection features Sherborne farmer Jack Diamond recounting memories associated with his binder:
Celebration and thanksgiving
Whilst people have likely been celebrating bountiful harvest for millennia, the harvest festival as we think of it today originated in the 1840s. Services of thanksgiving were held in churches, usually decorated with the season’s harvest. A harvest supper or tea may have also been held, followed by dancing and merriment.
If this harvest season has gifted you an abundance of apples why not try a Dorset Apple Cake recipe from 1896 and let us see the results? What are your memories of the harvest season? Let us know in the comments below!