FIFTY YEARS AGO

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 9 (Supplement)

FIFTY YEARS AGO

FAMILY REARED ON 13/- A WEEK. A remarkable story of how life went fifty years ago; how a family was reared on meals that only cost a penny per person, and how a housewife w r as able to feed and clothe herself, her husband, and children on 15/a week, w T as revealed in an interview which a “Hull Times” representative had with Mrs. W. C. Bielby, of Holme-in—Spalding-Moor, who, with her husband, Mr. Bielby, celebrated their diamond wedding in November. Mr. and Mrs. Bielby are a grand old couple, wonderful types of good old Yorkshire stock, who, with much modesty afid hesitation, tell *of incidents which are really epics of domestic life. They were married at Esrick Church on November 20, 1874, and at that time Mr. Bielby’s wage was 13/a week. As was usual in the farming districts in those days, he started work at eight years of age as a bird tenter, and went on working on the farm for thirty-two years. His wage continued at 13/- a week until his fourth child arrived, and then he got two shillings increase.

For these wages he worked from 6 in the morning until 6 at night, but at harvest time he would put in as many as eighteen hours a day. As extras for harvest he got a pint of beer a day and £1 at the end of the operations. In the early days all the work on the farm was manual. The seed was broadcast by hand from baskets which were slung round the neck; the reading was done by a sickle, and the com collected and tied by hand. As for threshing, this was done by flail, the work being reserved for wet days. After being a farm labourer for thirty-two years, Mr. Bielby set up as a farmer at Duffleld, near Selby, and during the course of his long career he has only been ill three weeks. The Cost of Living. Mrs. Bielßy, on being asked how she managed to bring up a family on 13/a week, was loth to take any credit for what she had accomplished. “Well, you see,” she replied, “things were cheaper—eggs 24 a shilling, beef 6d per lb., bacon 4Jd, and potatoes and vegetables we grew ourselves. We also grew mangolds and some com. We also kept a couple of pigs, and these kept us in fresh and salt pork. Potatoes and bacon drip formed our principal meals. “When my husband got his 2/- rise the master said that no farm labourer was worth more than 2/6 a day, so I asked him how he would set about feeding a family of six—man and wife and four children. He thought he could do it for 2/- a meal—that is, fourpence per person, which works out at two guineas a week.

“I told him that in our family of six we had to do it on 1/6 a day, or a penny per meal per person, or only 10/6 a week. This left us with only 4/6 over, and out of this I had to pay school fees for the children and find them in clothes.

“When they were young I made their clothes myself, but as they grew r up we engaged a travelling tailor. I used to buy the cloth and wait for the tailor to come round. We paid him 1/6 a day and gave him his food.

“We always paid our way as we went on. ‘Never get into debt,’ said my husband, ‘because is you cannot pay ewe week’s bill you surely cannot pay two,’ and so we never got Into debt.

“And believe me,” concluded Mrs. Bielby, “we were much happier and

more contented in those days than people appear to be nowadays, when they spend more in one week-end in pleasure than w T e spent in a year.”

Mrs. Bielby’s conversation was most interesting, and it was clear that she preferred the good old days to life in these days of rush and excitement.