The harvest of 1847 here in Chorlton, and of ones yet to come

The grape crop, 2014

Now this crop of grapes is hardly likely to set an Italian wine producer racing to our door, but we grew them, and I harvested them and now we are working out what to do with such an abundance.

And it is for us something of a bumper crop.

Last year we had almost as many but the cold and wet weather made sure that what came from the vine was small very acid and non too sweet.

The year before had been good but not so plentiful.

All of which reminds me that the harvest is an important point of the year.

The summer of 1847 had promised to be a good one which was an important consideration for a rural community and a good starting point for our story.

After all 96 of our families were engaged in some form of farming and so a good harvest would put food on the table, guarantee work for the many and help the village through the dark cold winter a head.

Equally important for the sixteen families who made their living as tradesmen and retailers the harvest was central to their fortunes.  Only the gentry might be more relaxed at the weather.  But even they would have been aware of the distress and possible social unrest which might follow a bad year in the fields.

St Clement's Church on the green ready for the harvest festival, 1903

During that long hot summer of 1847 many in the township would have been thinking of the harvest to come and if it turned out to be a good one then the harvest celebrations might also be well remembered.

This would begin with the harvest home, where the last wagon loaded with the harvest would be decorated and escorted back accompanied by wives workers and children.

In some places the leading reaper would take the part of the Lord of the harvest and dress up and ask for money from onlookers


Later there would be the special harvest supper where the farmer rewarded his workers with food, alcohol and music.  Later still there would be the religious thanksgiving.

So as we draw to that point in the year I rather think I shall spend some time reflecting on what it meant and how it was celebrated here in Chorlton in the middle of the 19th century.

But for now I shall return to those grapes which must also say something for the soil from which they sprang.
Back in the 1840s this was Gratrix land.  He was the tenant farmer and his farm house was just opposite our vine and more about him later.

Of course in one of those outrageous bouts of self promotion I will just add that much of what I will say on harvest time comes from the book THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, but such blatant advertising should be condoned.

Picture; grapes from the vine, 2014, from the collection of Andrew Simpson and St Clement's Church, 1903, courtesy of Carolyn Willits

*THE STORY OF CHORLTON-CUM-HARDY, Andrew Simpson, 2012, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/the-story-of-chorlton-cum-hardy.html