Any 'Ag Labs' in your family tree?

[Caroline]

http://www.familytreeforum.com/showthread.php/81870-Any-Ag-Labs-in-your-family-tree

I am planning on going along to this next Sunday ... will I bump into anyone else there?

[Kit]

Not me, I'm afraid.

It does sound interesting though. Have a good time.

[Lin Fisher]

I have loads of Ag Labs but too far for me to go.

Sounds really great though.

If you get any good tips from it will you let us all know please.

Hope you enjoy yourself.

[Janet]

Would love to go as so many ag labs in family tree but sadly have said I will help out with grandchildren!

Janet

[MarionH]

Would love to go - I seem to have nothing but Ag Labs - but it's a little too far to go. If anything interesting comes up a quick note would be greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy it (need smilie with a green face!)
Thanks, Marion

[Velma Dinkley]

Ooooooh! That's only about 30 miles south of us here so would love to come

I have George Sturt's wheelwrighting book... and I see they have his tools at the museum

I found more info here http://www.rurallife.plus.com/rlc/index.html although can't see the price for admission??

[Velma Dinkley]

Ah, found it http://www.rurallife.plus.com/rlc/page9.html#TOP

[Caroline]

Ooooooh! That's only about 30 miles south of us here so would love to come

I have George Sturt's wheelwrighting book... and I see they have his tools at the museum

I found more info here http://www.rurallife.plus.com/rlc/index.html although can't see the price for admission??

George Sturt is very possibly distantly related to me by marriage!! I am hoping to have a look at their archives as well as get pictures of things as lots and lots of my lot come from the area ...

[Valice in Wonderland]

Would love to go - I seem to have nothing but Ag Labs - but it's a little too far to go. If anything interesting comes up a quick note would be greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoy it (need smilie with a green face!)
Thanks, Marion

Is this any good Marion

[GallowayLass]

No chance of me getting there either LOL I've got loads and loads of them in my Mum's tree and one or two (so far) in my Dad's. Enjoy your day out.

[MarionH]

Thank you Val - just what I needed!

[clematised]

Some of you may have this already but for those of you that have not seen it you can add it to your files to show what your Ag Labs knew to get them through their work.

Edna


Ag Labs. Salt of the Earth! How about this? Found in Liverpool Family Historian June 02

Food For Thought- He must have been an Ag Lab

"Ask yourselves whether you know the gestation period for a sheep or a cow, and you can't read or write to make a note of it. The ag lab knew when the animal would calve by observing the position of the stars and work it out from that, or from the particular religious festivals being celebrated in church at the appropriate times. Reading and writing is one thing, but it wasn't necessary, numeracy however or a limited knowledge of it was essential so as to count his or his masters livestock and his own money and to tell the time. It was no good thinking that 7 o'clock came immediately after three bells had just struck on the church clock!

There was no electricity, the lanes were bad and there was no health service. The Ag lab knew how to make his own rush lights to light his home, the shortest and driest route between 2 places and which herbs to pick as remedies for his families ailments. He knew his neighbours far better than we know ours. We isolate ourselves in our cars and in front of our television sets. He relied on neighbours with different skills from his, to help him out when the need arose. He was thrifty where we borrow on bits of plastic he and his family had to make ends meet regardless or with great shame go on the parish.

Yes he could even forecast his local weather watching the reactions of wildlife and plants to changing conditions. He was far better at it than any of us from our centrally heated homes and offices. He knew how to thatch and how to get straight straw for thatching whereas we send for experts to fix a cracked slate.

He was tough. He could walk for days behind a plough, pulled by a team of horses, and still walk miles to church each Sunday. A 20 mile walk laden with produce or purchases to and from market each week was also the norm for some. No fancily equipped gymnasium for him, yet he was fitter than today's health freaks who maybe should take a lesson or two from his ancestors.

Can you use a sickle or scythe from dawn to dusk, in all weathers? Can you snare a rabbit for dinner or cut beanpoles from a hedge in a manner that will promote further growth? Can you mix your own whitewash, or train a dog to hunt or round up sheep for you? Come to that can you milk a cow or slaughter and butcher a sheep or pig?

So called ag labs were no fools. they survived and very few of us would be here to read this if they hadn't!

[Caroline]

We had a good day for what turned into a mini-mini meet - the weather was hot, sunny and dry, and we wandered around exploring the site and the exhibits.

The FHGs from Sussex, Hampshire and West Surrey had set up shop, along with John Owen Smith. There was also a small selection of archive material out and I think I established that the centre hold the records of the solicitors J.Eggar - apart from that, the volunteer didn't seem very clear about what else they held in their archives. But I did find out that Surrey are bringing out an updated Marriages CD in the autumn and so is Hampshire - that one will go back to the 1660s - I can't wait!!!!! (The Surrey one had been delayed as the checker I was talking to had discovered that a whole lot of entries had had the forename and surname reversed and so all the entries have had to be crosschecked and re-entered ).

I had lived in the area between 1956 and 1973, but was twice disconcerted - once to find the names of people I knew in the HISTORY of cricket display at the same time that I knew them, the second time when somebody turned to me and insisted that he knew me. We established that we hadn't met, but it seems that he had mistaken me for somebody he has known for years and .... just happens to have one of the main surnames in my tree (a surname I only came across a few months ago!!). It was coincidence that we had been living in the area - at the time, we had no idea that my paternal roots were firmly there, and the only tie had been that my maternal grandmother was not far away. My father was in the RN and it happened to be halfway between London and Portsmouth.

The site is interesting, with a vast collection of tools and things with some reconstructed buildings and worth a visit, but I would go when they have something special on to make it worthwhile for a long journey.

Just a small selection of pictures to click on:

[Caroline]

[Velma Dinkley]

Those look familiar Caroline!! :D

[Caroline]

Oh - that didn't work very well - it was supposed to be a small selection of pictures, not a selection of small pictures!! Better change the links ...


That's better!!

[clematised]

Thank you Caroline for sharing the pictures of the trip, it looks a really interesting place.

Edna

[Jill on the A272]

What an interesting place, thanks for the pictures. I've got loads of ag labs but like them am limited to shank's pony so I don't expect I'll be able to get there.

[Caroline]

What an interesting place, thanks for the pictures. I've got loads of ag labs but like them am limited to shank's pony so I don't expect I'll be able to get there.

Maybe you can get your school to go on a trip there!! They seem well geared up for school parties - ready made worksheets, the lot!!