Day off today. Very heavy frost last night. Pipes froze in the kitchen. Not fit for P. N won 30/- at the house. Knee still bad. Good session in the Wheat.
(N is Nell, my grandma. House is bingo.)
My granddad died in 1983. For the previous 20 years, he kept a diary, recording his day as a farm worker and then through his retirement. We are lucky enough to have his notebooks, all the entries in block capitals, often in pencil. He always tells us about the weather, sometimes about what is going well at the allotment. We get updates of how Liverpool are doing and the occasional political thought. He suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, was always in pain, but you would never know from these entries. My mum once described him as a contented man. Who knows, really, but certainly, there is something soothing about these entries. So I thought I would share them with you. We have a few years to cover so buckle up.

Day off today. Very heavy frost last night. Pipes froze in the kitchen. Not fit for P. N won 30/- at the house. Knee still bad. Good session in the Wheat.
(N is Nell, my grandma. House is bingo.)
Froze harder than ever last night. Sight snow showers in the day. Burning papers all morning. Cleaned out both jets in the p.m. Thawed out pipe from lady’s washroom.
Still very cold with a heavy frost last night. Two new bins for the vet lab. Whitewashing in back places down boiler room. Lot of stuff to burn. Bond’s office. Screws bad today.
Still bitterly cold with east wind. Washed Shake’s car. Salted the paths and chipped the ice off. Put cinders along the roadway. Brought the draining rods from the field.
Still very cold, frost again last night. Cut some wood for the incin. 600 galls of oil last night. Cleared silage lab. Knee pretty bad again today. John Perry back. O.

Another cold day with a keen frost last night. Len back at work. Ron off. A big calf to burn today. Cleaned both jets and polished all the copper. Too cold for car cleaning.
Thawing a bit during the day but frost again at night. Got up 10 a.m. Did no work. Dot and Ron came for tea. Dot will soon have baby now. Went to Wheatsheaf at night.
A day on today. Got done 10 a.m. Roads quite bad on way to work but thawing a bit. Got a hell of a cold. No football on. Not fit to go to P. Cleared snow off paths.
Old Lane bad this a.m. Snowing all afternoon again. Another big sow to cut and burn. Lost rod down the drain. Got Norman’s man to help but no luck. 10/- rise.
Snow in the night and most of the day. Old Road pretty bad. Still trying to clear drain. Got it once but blocked up again. Have a go again in the morning.