Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay

Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay documents rural life in Suffolk, England during the late 19th and early 20th centuries through first-hand accounts from agricultural workers and villagers. George Ewart Evans conducted extensive interviews with elderly residents in the 1950s, preserving their memories of traditional farming methods and social customs before mechanization changed the countryside. The book covers daily routines, work practices, and seasonal rhythms of Suffolk's farming communities, from plowing with horses to harvesting by hand. Evans records details about tools, techniques, folk beliefs, and the organization of labor that characterized this vanished way of life. Through verbatim transcripts and careful observations, the text captures the authentic voices and experiences of people who worked the land in pre-industrial times. The interviewees share stories about wages, working conditions, domestic life, and relationships between farmers and laborers. The book stands as both historical record and meditation on the swift transformation of rural Britain, illustrating how technological change can reshape not just methods of work but entire social structures and ways of understanding the world.

Readers value this book as a record of vanishing rural English life and farming practices from the late 1800s to early 1900s. The oral histories capture details about harvest customs, superstitions, and daily routines that would otherwise be lost. Readers appreciate: - First-hand accounts from actual farmworkers - Specific details about tools, techniques and terminology - Focus on ordinary people rather than landowners - Clear writing style that lets interviewees' voices come through Common criticisms: - Limited geographical scope (mainly Suffolk) - Can be repetitive in places - Some find the dialect challenging to understand Ratings: Goodreads: 4.16/5 (37 ratings) Amazon UK: 4.7/5 (15 ratings) "A treasure trove of rural memories" - Goodreads reviewer "Important social history told by those who lived it" - Amazon review "The vernacular language takes patience but adds authenticity" - Goodreads reviewer

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🌾 George Ewart Evans conducted most of his research in the village of Blaxhall, Suffolk, recording the memories of elderly farm workers who remembered pre-mechanized farming methods from the late 1800s. 📖 The book's title comes from an old Suffolk saying, suggesting that practical knowledge should be sought from those who actually did the work rather than from theoretical sources. 🎙️ Evans was one of the first British writers to use oral history as a primary research method, recording interviews on a tape recorder borrowed from the BBC in the 1950s. 🏺 Beyond farming practices, the book preserves accounts of folk customs, superstitions, and rural traditions that were rapidly disappearing from East Anglian life in the mid-20th century. 🌟 The work is considered a pioneering text in the field of oral history and has influenced generations of social historians in their approach to documenting rural life and traditional practices.