1930 Diary of Elliot Woolford of Hook Farm, Lydiard Tregoze

1930

The Lydiard Estate – Viscountess Bolingbroke’s Decision – Dispersal Sale, is the heading on a newspaper cutting from the North Wilts Herald dated Friday March 28, preserved in the 1930 diary. Elliot and his brother Rowl attended the auction held at the Goddard Arms Hotel on March 21 where he bought two cottages at Hook, one at £31 and one at £44. These cottages were occupied by two of his farmhands. Elliot had purchased the 157-acre Hook Farm for £3,000 by private negotiation before the sale took place. That night Elliot writes in his diary: - “Great many lots unsold. None of it realized very good prices.”  

Background

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.

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 in 1930. The Woolford family remain there to this day.