Staine Hundred
THE AGM WAS HELD at the beginning of the October Meeting of the Staine Hundred.
Members were welcomed by the Chairman, Maureen Rogers. Peter Arnold gave the
financial report for the year which showed a profit, mainly because the coach
to the North Norfolk Railway and Felbrigg in the summer was supported by 24
members and 18 non-members. Membership remains at £10 per annum or £2.50 for a
single lecture. Maureen thanked Gill Rushworth for arranging the programme,
Janet and Laurie Marsh for the Walkabout at Fen Ditton, and Stewart Bell for
organizing the outing. Tom Doig, a social historian, gave a talk entitled
"Farming with Steam". Historically, farming first relied on human
muscle power for ploughing, sewing, reaping and grinding the corn. This was
followed by animal power, including the ploughs of Domesday Book which were
pulled by a team of 8 oxen. Around 1800, the external combustion engine using
steam came into use in a limited way. In 1790 a three-wheeled steam stagecoach
which could reach speeds of 20 mph was used but because of bureaucracy this
only ran for about 18 months. By 1810, windmills could be driven by a steam
engine when there was no wind to drive the sails. A steam system was used to
sterilise the soil in greenhouses around 1830. Steam was used to drive shears
when shearing sheep, and for milking cows and for sawing wood. He spoke about
the various ways used to draw ploughs with portable steam engines, the most
successful being when two engines were used at opposite end of the fields, but
as ropes were used these could get snared up. In 1851, there were 8000 portable
steam engines in this country. Many were sent to France in WWI but never came
back and there was a steady decline in their use as the internal combustion
engines took over, though his father had a steam driven car. He virtually
ignored threshing machines as he thought we knew all about them but their
inclusion would have given a more rounded picture of the use of steam in
farming.
Tom Doig has passed his driving test on a steam engine and gave an amusing account of this. He was thanked by Maureen Rogers for an interesting talk.
The next meeting is on Wednesday November 9th in the Lecture Room at Bottisham Village College at 7.30pm when Margaret Richardson will be talking about "War Memorials". Anyone is welcome to come as a guest.