1917 Diary of Elliot Woolford of Hook Farm, Lydiard Tregoze

1917

References to wartime constraints form a continuing theme throughout the 1917 edition of the diary. Elliot struggled with fluctuating milk prices and the high cost of livestock at Swindon market. When 18-year-old farmhand Walter Howard received his army call-up papers, Elliot appealed to the recruiting officer to ‘let him off for two months.’ He wrote in his diary on Saturday, March 10: - “Walter Howard left my employ after about 3 years service. Not a bad worker but very bad time in the morning. He has to join the army at once.”

In a meticulously kept and unbroken series of diaries, Elliot Woolford provides the reader with a no-nonsense view of farming life at Lydiard Tregoze spanning more than 45 years. His livelihood was forever at the mercy of the vagaries of the weather and fluctuating market prices.

Background

Elliot and his brother Rowland acquired the tenancy of Hook Farm in 1899 from the 5th Viscount Bolingbroke. In 1930 Elliott was able to purchase the farm when part of the Bolingbroke estate was sold by the Viscount's widow, Mary. The Woolford family remain there to this day.

As the country entered the third year of war in 1917, Elliot records the impact it made upon his work, the farm, and the local community.