Working with the Curlew: A Farmhand's Life

In Working with the Curlew, Trevor Robinson shares his enthusiasm and joy for his work as a shepherd on the moor at Great Whernside in Yorkshire, and later as a farmhand near Leominster in Hereford. A lovely environment, very busy and hard work with no lorries, no electric motors, and no tractors, just nature’s own sounds. He celebrates the intricate details of traditional farm life: selling rabbits at tuppence each, the village hop, sheep shearing, lambing, shire horses, haymaking, the warm welcome taste of tea on a snow-bound moor, muck spreading, cheese and bread making, trout-tickling, and killing the pig, a quiet job well done. During one severe Yorkshire winter, 600 sheep were lost, and he had to leave the job he loved. His new job in Herefordshire brought different skills: hedge laying, ploughing matches, haymaking, chain harrowing, and crop rotation, and inevitably, the arrival of tractor and combine harvester.