Rainbow Journeyman’s diary

Although shown in our photographs as the main road, this picture we show is probably not the original road from Docton Mill to Speke Mill. The original road was always believed to follow the older drover’s tracks. This was used by the steel wheeled wagons heavily laden with grain drawn by shire horses of grand stature. Often bred for their strength and stamina these gentle giants could sense the wagons feel on the muddy road and transported grain and workers with ease.

At Harvest time all able villagers would assist in the gathering of the grain. The fields were worked systematically, edge to the middle, with scythes. ( Scythe - a long curved pole with a shear razor sharp blade clamped to the bottom edge which was used to crop the grain at ground level.) This method was applied to catch the secondary harvest “Rabbits”. A welcome addition to the cook pots of these practical country workers.

The villagers gathered the cut corn by hand making it into stooks. The stooks were stacked laden corn heads uppermost. These in turn were gathered by “pitch forking” onto wagons into stack then taken to a clear ground and winnowed. The retained straw was used for thatch and bedding. In the later half of the mills life a static steam engine would be linked to a thresher to complete the task. During harvesting the whole village would gather into the spirit of teamwork. The “maids” prepared hampers of food and scrumpy to ease the needs of the dusty worlers as they toiled.

The resulting grain “harvest” was collected and shovelled into high sided horse drawn carts which threaded their way through the winding narrow Devon lanes to the local miller. The grain was dumped into a collection pit where it was shovelled into a lift hoist to be raised to the top of the mill where it began its decent to the ground through the rumbling stone dressed wheels whose job was to grind the corn and turn the rough grain into feed for villagers and livestock.

History shows that Wagons in different counties were painted in local colours. The livery colours for Devon’s Wagons were mid blue. At harvest the wagons had to haul heavy loads through narrow lanes which soon became rutted and slippery. To counter the wheel slip on a laden wagon as they negotiated the steep hills around the mill, wooden wedges, called slippers, were attached to the wagon’s wooden chassis by chains. These were placed by the carter, under the rear, non steering wheels, of the wagon if slip was detected. The horses, as mentioned were probably Welsh stock shires. These were well adapted to the movement and control of these heavily laden wagons. Sensing the weight shift on hills they would have leaned and held the forward motion of the wagon against the down thrust of the hills. The Waggoner’s brake comprised little more than curved blocks sometimes steel shod held against the wheel to control the rotation. Horses also needed re-shoeing every three to six months and cart wheels repaired.

There was a support industry of Black Smiths and Wheelwrights in virtually every village.