Got up about 10a.m. A nice morning. Started to dig the garden. Allan and Girl came in the afternoon. Stayed for tea. Also Dot and Ron. Went to the Wheat at night.
(Girl , or Girlie, was my granddad’s youngest sister. Allan was her husband.)
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.

Got up about 10a.m. A nice morning. Started to dig the garden. Allan and Girl came in the afternoon. Stayed for tea. Also Dot and Ron. Went to the Wheat at night.
(Girl , or Girlie, was my granddad’s youngest sister. Allan was her husband.)
Saturday off today. Wind dropped and not so cold. Put muck round the roses. Went to P in the afternoon. Rose pruning. Raked the drive. Washed the car. A nice afternoon sunshine.
Very strong gale blowing and quite cold. Went for a haircut. Got two new cloths off Mrs Starkey. Car washing again. H.S.D. makes 39 to date. Cleaned both the jets. Gale still blowing. Colder.
Milder today with showers and strong winds. Cleared silage bins again. No.2 burner on red first thing. Digging among the rhododenrons. Paid 3.9 3 weeks canteen yesterday. X
Sharp frost last night and very cold wind blowing today. Got two new knives for Howarth. Sent for two new washers for hot filters. Did some forking around the fruit trees. Got 5/- off Dot. Won 4.
(“Got 5/- off Dot. Won 4”?)
A very cold north wind blowing today though sunny. Forking in the rose garden. Cleaned both jets in the afternoon. The highest speed ever recorded for a gale in the UK yesterday. 103 mph.
(I think this was the Sheffield hurricane, which killed four people in Sheffield and Barnsley.)
A strong wind blowing with heavy rain, but quite mild. 600 galls of oil came. X. Only washed 1 car. Shacks. 26 to date. Moving furniture into new offices today. Got pullover off Josie.
Got up about 10am. Dug my rose beds. Joe brought my load of muck. Threw it over into the garden. Strong wind blowing with rain. Ron and Dot came for tea.
My day on today. A beautiful mild sunny morning. Put a load of muck on the trailer for myself. Went to P in the afternoon. Got rained off 3. Much colder at night.
(Got rained off 3 – no idea)
Quite mild today with a lot of cloud and drizzle. Car washing again. H.A.S.B. 35 to date washed. Cleaned both jets again and cleared silage bins.
(More news on yesterday’s pig burning. My mum says: “He was burning a pig because at Weatherstones owned by Bibby’s the vets did postmortems on pigs and other animals.”)