The farm labourer's tasks included ploughing, harrowing, rolling, sowing seed, tending and weeding a variety of crops, harvesting with scythe, sickle and spade, and laying up and threshing during the winter. The animals had to be herded and milked, and give skilled help at lambing and shearing times. There was cutting, drying and stacking hay, as well as trimming and laying hedges or building drystone walls, fencing and making gates, making or mending roofs of thatch, tile or slate, and pointing brickwork. Ditches, culverts, drains, ponds, farm roads and tracks all had to be made and maintained. In autumn stubborn invasive weeds needed to be skillfully eradicated by fire, and every item needed in the home had to be constructed on days when the weather was too poor to work outside. Not every agricultural labourer possessed, or needed, all of these skills but the seasonal nature of most work demanded that he be versatile and, naturally, the more capable he was the better wages he could command.

The children would scare birds, pick stones, plait straw, and weed fields. The older girls were expected to assist their mother in handicrafts, cooking, cleaning, raising chickens and other household chores, whilst boys from about the age of seven would work beside their father in the fields. Schooling, except for an hour of Sunday School, was almost unheard of for labourers until at least 1870, as even if a charity school existed they could not be spared to attend it.

Men working on the farm traditionally wore linen smocks, a dress-like garment with plenty of fullness allowing movement. They were made in a number of colours, and often had elaborate embroidery on the sleeves and neck openings. The smock was an outer garment worn over a shirt (which doubled as a night shirt), waistcoat and breeches fastened with a button, buckle or tape beneath the knee. Stockings, boots, sometimes gaitors and a hat completed the ensemble. Until about 1840 long trousers were only worn by sailors and very poor shepherds.

His wife Jane, would have been responsible for their poultry, brewing and dairy produce and she would accept paid work of this kind outside her considerable domestic duties whenever she could. This might also include picking stones, weeding vegetables, fruit picking or binding sheaves and stooking at harvest. (Src: "England Agricultural Occupations (National Institute)

An account of the Hemp Wheels Bought by Thomas Bright Gale and John Church 1794(?) - [WRO 831/13]  Background Information: Under the Poor Law Act of 1601 the parish Overseer could collect rates for the relief of the poor. One of several ways the monies could be spent was in providing materials with which the poor could be put to work. The year 1794 was one of considerable hardship throughout the land and so, presumably to relieve some of the burden on the Poor Rate payers, it was deemed beneficial to spend a considerable amount on the provision of these 73 spinning wheels (plus the hemp needed to go with them). Seventy families received this aid and this is possibly about 30% of the households in the parish at the time. The wheels would only be given to those physically capable of operating them and so excluded the very aged or infirm, it gives an indication of the level of destitution at this time.