Working on the land | Poverty | farm labourer | Poverty in the countryside | This Week | 1969

‘This Week’ correspondent Llew Gardner travels to rural Norfolk and speaks some of the poorest workers in the land. On average the UK’s farm workers work a 40 hour week for no more than 15 pounds a week compared to the average weekly wage of 25 pounds a week of their industrial contemporaries. Poor pay and conditions has led to 25000 farm workers leaving the land a year. We ask. Is this sustainable?
First shown: 03/04/1969
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Quote: VT100995

[@benchippy8039]

I worked as a carpenter for a very successful farmer building a robotic milking parlour as I rented a cottage off him, he told me he would never pay any man more than £12 an hour. I didn’t have work at the time so swallowed it but the farmers dons both went to Stowe school while his workers lived in poverty

[@351yt]

My dad chose to move to the country in the 60s. We lived in a tied cottage with it's own meadow, woods and a stream for fishing. We had a huge vegetable garden and kept ducks, hens and geese. Firewood was supplied for free. There were no bills to worry about apart from electricity and deliveries from the baker's van. He could have made twice as much in the town but didn't want to live like rats in a tenement slum.

[@stephenholmes1036]

We were a herdsmans family in West Cornwall. We were not given free food, tied cottage to small for us all. We boys lived in a mobile home at the back which we had pay a pound a week. We had to keep, goats for milk, Hens, rabbitts and pigs for food. Life was hand to mouth in tbe 1960s, 70s and early 80s We we're unlucky we had a unpleasant family who were well to do. Dad and mammy were left a small bungalow and when dad put his notice in they though dad and mammy were going to homeless they got a shock. It depended on who your boss was some good , some bad. It was a very hard life forget the myths it was very tough. Im.60 not 90 but cheap food was part is part of tbe problem

[@josiethornton7049]

Sounds like the slave system

[@stephenholmes1036]

Your not far wrong

[@user-nh3ob4so4w]

my dad was from thetford norfolk farrier by trade, joined kings troop in 1936 has a farrier grandad went back to farming, after 1914 1918 war, loved there way of life bless them RIP xx

[@TheTonialadd]

I wish I could go back in time to when they’re plowing the fields. I bet you would find some great treasures.

[@jannyrocks1815]

My Father was a shepherd for a farmer in Nettleham, Lincs in the 1950s, my parents were newly married, they lived in a tied cottage and the farmer was a gentleman living in a big country house. My Grandfather, also a farmer, passed away unexpectedly, my Grandmother sent my Father a telegram to come back right away as the cows needed milking, so my Great Uncle had to travel down in a cattle wagon to load up & bring my Parents and all their belongings back to Cheshire just like that, and they carried on farming the home farm, not what they'd planned as then, as a sheep farmer, they didn't get 'paid' until they sold sheep at market, their 'paycheck' came once a year on market day.

[@TS-1267]

... I Have Family Who Live In 'Gumby' in Lincs.... I'm a 'Tyke' Bah Tat!... 😂😂😂 7:50

[@stefansmalley3569]

I live 5 minutes away from Nettleham

[@jasonayres]

(4:00) Thames interviewer : Why don't you get another job. Bob's wife : Why don't you get another job. Great money and incentives at the cigarette factory. The (lead) paint factory. Manufacturing, coal mines - they're the future, Bob! Switch on the radio. "All you need is love", Bob. Sung by some fellas driving around in a hand painted Rolls Royce. Yeah, just drop everything, Bob.

[@Toodle.Pipp001]

Nothings changed. Imagine living wages (the real kind, not the current government definition) and a farmer's cooperative that sold directly to communities, cut out the greed driven corporations. Poverty is a prison folks, no one is happy there.

[@jasonayres]

@@Toodle.Pipp001 Yes, no romanticism about poverty. I just noticed that Bob was "content", you know. And contentment is a powerful thing. They were doing it tough, and they knew it, and they expressed it. And yet, he was content. He reminded me of the old saying, "Make hay while the sun shines." (Maybe it was the hay and the sunshine that prompted that 💡)

[@happyuk06]

Good on Bob for sticking to his principles when all around him were goading him into taking up some soul-destroying factory job.

[@MrDastardly]

A magnificent report by Llew Gardner, such a professional journalist.

[@davidlee6720]

farmer doesn't look like he is starving. I remember tater-picking as a child , got hardly a penny for back-breaking work trawling through mud all day with no breaks. Slavery really, treated us like peasants. Us and them.

[@tea4mug]

My grandad used to go tater picking in Leicestershire as a young lad & the farmer paid them very little. They used to sling some potatoes in the hedge during the day and then come back after they’d finished and take the potatoes for dinner! He also used to tickle trout out of the stream, not sure if it was a private not, don’t think it was the canal!

[@michaelharrison3602]

Twelve pounds eight shillings for a forty hour week! Pigging luxury I had to work 30 hors a day down pit for a penny a year Twelve of us lived in shoe box int middle of road but we were happy 😅

[@BobBob-ok8su]

What did you have for dinner

[@jamesbarbour8400]

Yay - good old Monty Python/3 Yorkshire Men sketch !

[@honeyfungus4774]

Other people's misery is hilarious, eh. You must have a great time watching the news.

[@russellstratford4016]

Ronald Blythe book Akenfield a must read account of the hardships of rural life for farmworkers.

[@janoginski5557]

We ran a very successful farming (& Graziers ) business. The boys and or families that lived in the “tied” cottages were not charged a rent, we also paid their heating bills & supplied them with coal for their open fires. And fresh milk. I think we treated the men with respect.

[@davepayne586]

that very good of you.some one cares.

[@janoginski5557]

@@davepayne586 hello David, I find it hard to believe that farmers would charge their workers a rent a rent on tied cottages, in bloody believable, that's just not right on any level. Yes we treated them with respect, they for the most part were great old boys. Of course they were born in the late 1800's & early 1900's a completely different class of person. We also supplied a vehicle for the men who lived off farm, that was one or 2 Land Rovers. All the expenses paid, fuel & service. Why wouldn't a person want to treat people decently? They've all gone now, a lot of beautiful & lasting memories, God times are different now.

[@beachbum4691]

@@janoginski5557 Re' tied cottages, there's a lot from a very ancient past that has changed and changed and changed but still exists however outdated.

[@hughhunt6679]

The video is in 1950s-too 60s UK

[@Rob_Walker.]

Ey up hope you're well. We will always have hard times as we did back then and now chin up carry on. Keep in work no matter what you do be lucky 😊👍

[@bobbymcculloch2451]

What on earth is ey up ???

[@Rob_Walker.]

@bobbymcculloch2451 You will have to ask Google because I can't be bothered to explain either 😕

[@blottonthelandscape]

Reading the acclaimed book ‘Ackenfield’ by Ronald Blyth. This book is great complement to this video here.

[@djsimonrossprice9400]

From 1946 till late 1980s the British Farmers NEVER had it so good, Government subsidies after the war, the marketing boards, i.e Milk & potatoes made sure prices were good and steady.. If a farmer couldn't make great money between.those years 46 - 89.. then they were inept..

[@michaelwalsh9145]

Depends on the scale of the farm,that man with the 2.5k acres in the lap of luxury and the poor mouth was telling lies wishing he could pay his employees double.

[@IrishFrank22]

The subsidies are to insure cheap food for the public. Take away the subsidies and farmers will make more in the free market.

[@John316OBrian-cm4fj]

The problem was the British class system the Lords of the Manor kept the wealth and the peasants who never revolted are their slaves ,in Ireland as soon as the British landlords were fxxked out the peasants got the land .

[@pip110.5]

Same old story, the rich get rich, and the poor get children.

[@stuzaza]

1:05 Good to see Del Boy in the action

[@blottonthelandscape]

“Farmers never admit they are rich and rarely look poor”

[@user-or9kv1ej1k]

I was on a county council farm and they have killed all of us

[@bobbymcculloch2451]

Farmers now have it easy Big expensive machines. Best of cars. 4x4 vehicles. Which they never seem to look after. Quad bikes etc etc. in the good old days farmers had to walk the roads and fields to tend and feed the animals.in all kinds of weather. Now they are all wrapped up and drive in the fields. Never seen a poor farmer in this day and age.

[@OscarOSullivan]

Go to the hill farming areas of Ireland and Britain and look at sheep farmers like all upland farmers they are the least well off.

[@mnj640]

Nobody's getting cheap food these days and yet a lot of farmers still pay shit wages

[@lukeconway3454]

Farmers aren't seeing the increase in food prices

[@michaelwalsh9145]

The farmer saying he might make no money this year while having a neck of meat ion him like an Aberdeen Angus bull 😂😂😂

[@memorymuncher2738]

Absolute Owner famers Shite boxes

[@hayerubihayerubi5720]

On the whole. Farmers have always had money. Cars land houses etc .. they moaned forever they haven’t. The biggest subsidised industry in the uk

[@smhorse]

Lets eliminate farming, then. Import all our food from overseas (we do that anyway). Concrete over the farmland, build new towns and cities instead. 🤷‍♂️

[@skyworm8006]

@@smhorse Farming is the one thing that should be subsidised. Profit should not be a concern. You cannot properly regulate what goes into food, or its quality, or have any food security without this.

[@smhorse]

@@skyworm8006 : you'd hope so, but Western government doesn't think so 🤷‍♂️

[@skodapickup]

It was the bigger farm that had workers , most farms didn't have financial scope to employ anyone .

[@jackwardley3626]

nothing's changed

[@mnj640]

It's either too dry or too wet or costs too much 😂

[@johncourtneidge]

1969!

[@gbwildlifeuk8269]

Same old story. Ever since the industrial revolution farm workers have been making an exodus into towns and cities because pay is better than farm work. Now, (2023) farmers are complaining they cant get cheap labour from the EU anymore, (they can) and staffing is hard because people are wise to the low pay and conditions. The farmers of course are struggling despite the machinery worth tens of thousands, the numerous 4x4s, subsidies and the equity in the land and buildings.

[@skyworm8006]

Yeah there's always been a big meme about how awful factories were but in real life people were doing anything to get away from farms and into factories

[@IrishFrank22]

The land is worthless unless you sell it. Machinery is needed to do the job. Would begrudge a surgeon using the latest tools and technology to carry out his work. Subsides are for the benefit of the public not the farmer. Farming is 365 days a year unlike most people's jobs.

[@happyuk06]

The solution as I see it is to break the giant agri-businesses into smaller farms/smallholdings with less dependency on chemicals and fuel, regulate the behaviour of the "super" markets and make people accept that they will need to pay more for their food. Painful in the short term but I think it will be better for the environment and general well-being.

[@michaelharrison3602]

Farmers are always complaining they they've got no money 😅😅 when

[@rapman5363]

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your Uncle

[@michaelharrison3602]

Whenever my dad looked fed up my mum would tell me that his farmers were playing up again

[@conormorgan6280]

Every farmer in the Republic of Ireland is his own boss on his own land because the Irish people smashed this tory system in most of Ireland.

[@OscarOSullivan]

Also Meitheal system in most of Ireland, your family, friends and general neighbours help you out and you help them out.

[@benchippy8039]

The guy interviewed at 21 minutes doesn’t have a clue does he? Banging on about no profit while he’s sat in his mansion. I’m no socialist but I couldn’t sleep at night if I were him

[@davidcaldwell4953]

Yes folks there the good old days rickets diphtheria. It's called looking back with rose coloured speckles. Life was a lot harder then not the help available today

[@TS-1267]

... SAME MEAT JUST DIFFERENT GRAVY IN 2024... BABA GOV'S.... 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿✌️🍻 6:12

[@bertibear1300]

It was worse then, it will get bad but not yet.

[@checkitautgameplays8255]

all deaths

[@honeyfungus4774]

All that white privilege.

[@robertjsmith]

Why do they wear shirt n tie. ?

[@huldaliljeblad3611]

It was the norm back then. So, the same reason you are wearing the clothes you are.

[@robertjsmith]

@@huldaliljeblad3611 why ?

[@huldaliljeblad3611]

@@robertjsmith I guess they didn't want to be naked.

[@buddha1736]

If you want to see the future UK 🇬🇧 after Brexit this is it. 😉

[@rockwellcollins6768]

Farm workers across Europe and the UK have been underpaid forever, Brexit has nothing to do with it.

[@eps0m1066]

Right, and the EU is currently booming 😂😂

[@terenceretter5049]

@@eps0m1066 Interesting that just a few months ago European farmers were collecting in droves on Motorways in protest at their government(EU)- ? because they were booming?...don't think so.

[@shaunjones6049]

🤔 seems like farmers, are getting stuffed by politicians around the world at the moment. Before Brexit a lorry driver mate of mine told me he had to take a lorry load of carrots to Germany . Then pick up a lorry load of carrots and bring them back to the Uk🙄 something to do with EU trading agreements.😳 Crazy! Food prices are set to keep rising ☹️ Uk farmers are told to plant less, under the banner of the Government Cares for the Environment 😉 The same government who let foreign corporation backed water companies pump shit into 🇬🇧 Uk rivers for 20yrs 🙄😡 pollution for profit 💵💵💵💵 60+ Billion after tax taken out of the country and given to shareholders 💰💰💰 and the government punishes the polluters? ? .? by letting the water companies increase Uk consumers water bills It’s the British people who are being farmed.

[@lisatruthful1369]

Truely Slaves. Everyone was, and we still are, but take heart, YAHUAH WINS YAHUSHA IS are Living GOD He IS here. FAITH in Him. Amen.

[@dorianphilotheates3769]

Yes...

[@lisatruthful1369]

How they will pay. Blood on there hands, as today. They took and conquered, this Beautiful land. YAHUAH 's Land. Time is short short, memories are strong. AMEN.