MIDDLETON ON THE WOLDS HERITAGE

Middleton on the Wolds

Before the First World War, farms were almost totally reliant on horse power for all jobs on the farm, with the only exceptions being the occasional steam-driven plough and the threshing machine. There was a strict hierarchy within the ‘horse lads,’ with many hired for a year and then moving on to a different farm due to the remoteness of some of the Wolds farms. The largest type of horse-drawn wagon was the Wold’s pole wagon, measuring 3.7m (12ft) long.

This meant that the skills of our farm workers were in demand even before the ‘Great War’ broke out. They were described in 1908 as “exceptionally good horse masters and postillion drivers…and would require very little training to enable them to take their place as drivers of guns in the field.”

“The Wolds Wagoners were the brainchild of Sir Mark Sykes, 6th baronet of Sledmere. Sir Mark, whose family had farmed the Wolds for a century and a half, had served with the Green Howards in the Boer War and seen with his own eyes the logistical problems in getting supplies to the front line. He was convinced that in a future European war the Army would need more wagon drivers, as military transport was still largely horse-drawn, and he felt the pole wagon drivers who worked on his land were perfect for overcoming the difficulties he had witnessed. Sir Mark proposed to the War Office that the agricultural workers of East Yorkshire be signed up as reservist drivers. He eventually got his way and in 1913 the Wagoners’ Special Reserve was set up and the following year when war broke out they became part of the Army Service Corps (ASC).”

Source The ‘Wolds Wagoners’ who left farms for war

Farm-hands were recruited as Wagoners and paid £1.00 a year, which they “knew as ‘the silly quid’ because it seemed so easily earned—as all they had to do, as they saw it, was to promise to fight if there was ever a war.” Farmers were also paid compensation in times of peace, though not in ‘time of war or grave national danger.’

There was no expectation of what lay ahead. They began driving supplies such as food and medical aid. As the war dragged on, the Wagoners found themselves on the front line along with the infantry. Here’s some evidence from The Yorkshire Post, ‘The Wolds Wagoners who left farms for war,’ published on 29th September 2014:

“There’s one man, wagoner Billy Thompson, who came from Middleton just down the road, and he talks about going up to the front line with five other wagoners and two lads from London. They got to the front line trench and one of these Londoners wants to look over the top and in Billy’s words he said, ‘we begged him not to’. He only looked the once and he was shot through the neck.”

“They have an everyman feel about them. They were just ordinary folk and they stepped up and served when they were asked to. They were very good at what they did and some of them won medals for gallantry, so they were right in the thick of it.”

The research suggests that Wagoners were special because they volunteered before the war began, and brave because they had no military training!

Do YOU agree?