Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 04 January 1941
Golden Wedding.
Reference was made in our last issue to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Edmund Wood, of 4, Beechouse Lane, Hemingfield, whose Golden Wedding was celebrated on Christmas Eve. Here are pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Wood received too late for inclusion with the report of their anniversary
Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 28 December 1940
Golden Wedding.
Hemingfield Couple’s Memories
The days when new laid eggs sold at sixteen for a shilling, laying hens were eighteen pence each and seven fat pigs made a good “market” at £5 10s 0d are recalled by the Golden Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Edmund Wood, of 4 Beech House Lane, Hemingfield.
The event occurred on Christmas Eve, when all of the six surviving children were present, along with full complement of grandchildren.
Mr. Wood was born at Otley and the couple were married at Birstwith, near Harrogate. December 24th, 1890. Mr. Wood’s father died when he was seven, and from that age he lived with and helped his grandfather, who also was a farmer. They were hard days for the lad because his grandfather, possibly expecting too much of a relative, would neither pay him wages nor let him go to school. But, they were days of learning from practical experience.
Mr. Wood milked cows when he was seven and is still doing that work for his sons. At sixteen years of age Mr. Wood decided that in his own interest it was time to make a move, and hired himself out to another farmer in the Harrogate district for £12 a year. He remained in that job for three years and managed to save £20, which enabled him to start on his own account.
He became a farm foreman in the Leeds district for nine years, and then struck out on his own, Mrs. Wood, who was a farmer’s daughter, being his “first hand.”
The couple came to Beech House Farm, Hemingfield, 26 years ago front Birstwith. In the meantime he had contrived to pay £650 for a farm which ultimately he sold for £800, the nucleus of the new venture at Wombwell.
Mr. Wood makes no pretentions to scholarship but, like all successful farmers, he knows that economics cannot be ignored and that accurate records of “ins and outs” are of vital importance.
Thus he has preserved his first “ledger” which shows that in 1899 he bought two red cows for £10 10s 0d, ten hens for 16s; seven pigs for £5 10s. 0d. ; Charlie his first horse for £9; also that he sold an old mare for 75s. Butter was then 8d a pound in summer and a trifle more in winter. The record also reveals that Mrs. Wood milked cows and made hay, that she took produce to the Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, recently mentioned in the news.
Mr. Wood has held a farm under the Wombwell U.D.C. and has earned a reputation as a man who knows how to keep his land in good heart and fettle. He now sees his five sons well established in farms of their own, four in the immediate district, and another at Hemsworth. The couple lost one son. Corporal Frank Wood, of the Y. and L. Regt., in the last war.
Mr. Wood Means that as a young man he cut hay for neighbouring farmers who could not afford a horse and machine, and, working from 4 in the morning until 10 at night, called it a day. His rate of payment was 4s. an acre, and his earnings on this contract amounted to £1 for eighteen hours, hire of horse and machine included. In that eighteen hours he never unyoked the horse, but let it feed while he was sharpening the knives. He is not one who sighs for the “good old days.”
Mr. and Mrs. Wood have had little time to share in the social life of the district, but they are both esteemed as members of St. George’s Church, Jump.
Mr. Wood has been a sidesman for 25 years and Mrs. Wood is a member of the committee of the Mother’s Union.
Mr. and Mrs. Wood’s only daughter is wife of Captain the Rev. George Key, Vicar of Laughton, near Rotherham, and now an Army Chaplain.