Oral History with children of Local Primary School at Dunham Massey.

In addition to the performance, children of Oldfield Brow School also had a chat to Ron Hutchinson (who was born in Dunham Massey) about how he and other children used to harvest potatoes at the local farms in the school holidays.

Gina and Ron Hutchinson enthral the children with fascinating tales of  'the privvy'

Ron was born at Brook Cottage and told horrifying (!) tales of having to go to the privvy on cold wet, black nights!
We will transcribe the tales and put them here as soon as possible.

Gina's wonderful collection and display of

agricultural life in Dunham Massey

Many thanks too to Gina who brought along her collection of local photos...which help put the stories into perspective.

Local Primary School children perform their very particular Food Heritage Story

Year 6 children from the local Primary School have worked hard to produce a play in a day!
Children travelled to the  wonderful Dunham Massey Village Hall to work on the history of nightsoil and vegetables travelling 'to and fro' along the canal that runs as the end of their school playground.

Drawing a victorian potato seller from Potato Wharf

The pupils learned about the story of nightsoil collection from Salford and Manchester, its transportation out to the local fields as fertiliser, and the return on the same boat (!) of local crops to Potato Wharf and the City's markets.

Artist Rory Lynch works with the children

The children created the story for  'Remembering the Food Cycle' with reference to the Forgotten Fields research.
Using stories of local people and places they created characters, props and the set for the play.

The nightsoil cart...props cut out for the production

Characters include the Lord Mayor of Manchester, his maid, the nightsoil man and unhappy co-workers, Mr Jackson (market gardener, Lime Tree House)
and the potato dealer at Castlefield.
Props include 'the privvy, the night-soil horse and cart, the canal-boat, the heap of night-soil, the potato dealer's barrow, the toilet bucket, and the Manchester Times, 14th April, 1849.
The set included a Potato Wharf Warehouse and the Oxnoble Pub at Castlefield (named after a potato).

Dress rehearsal!

The children wrote their own scripts and practiced crab like moves across the stage to keep their 'characters' facing the audience!

 Mrs T created a wonderful rhythmn piece in costume with children not on the stage.

The whole performance was filmed by Rory and we hope to be able to show this soon...
Watch this space!

Night-soil Information shared at Abbey Leys Farmer's Market

On Sunday we had an interesting morning talking to people at the Abbey Leys Farmer's Market about the availability of locally grown food for the City's markets. 

There was lots of interest in the role of the canal and a good deal of disgust at the thought of using the returning night-soil boat for the transport of farm food to the city!

A busy Sunday morning at the Market

We would like to know more about the locally grown vegetables that were carried via the Bridgewater Canal from market gardeners such as Mr Jackson at Lime Tree House at Dunham Massey whose field backed onto the waterside. I'm told that his vegetables were loaded from the wooden pier there for transport into Castlefield.

Not really directly related... but amusing nonetheless: a resident of Stockton Heath retold his childhood story: 

Making the connection with Kindling's current growing initiatives.

''My grandmother, Marjorie Coombes, (born around about 1916) lived at Greenhalls Avenue, Stockton Heath...told me that in some of the houses, (I don't know if it was hers or her neighbours).... that didn't have ginnels, the night-soil men, to get through to the back to the night soil, had to come through the house to empty the pan, to carry it back through to empty it into the cart!

The other story that I remember, she told me when I was very young...when she was a little girl just after the first world war...the night soil man who drove the cart, he had one arm - he lost one arm in the first world war she said that one day the horse got startled by...and I think she said it was the swing bridge in Stockton Heath...I don't know what startled her but the horse either reared or bolted and the night soil men in the front of the cart ended up in the back of the cart covered in whatever was in the back!''