2013 Farmery gathering

Saturday September 28th 2013 will see the thirteenth international Farmery gathering, once again in the village hall at Bracebridge Heath, near Lincoln (LN4 2LB).

Guests this year are already confirmed from as far away as Australia!

The first gathering was held on May 20th 2000, then every year from September 28th 2002.


•10.00am Registration and Coffee

•10.30am Welcome and Introductions (Alan Moorhouse)

•10.45am Old Lincolnshire - Preserving Local History on Film (film show by Lincolnshire Film Archive)

•11.45am DNA update

•12.00pm Open/workshop session

•12.30pm Lunch (at leisure)

•1.45pm Afternoon session commences

•2.00pm The Skivvy - Victorian Domestic Servants in Ordinary Families (Susan Deal)

•3.00pm Open/workshop session

•4.00pm Group photograph

•4.15pm Raffle, Tea

•4.30pm Close


Lincolnshire Film Archive was set up in 1986 to locate and preserve motion picture film showing life and work in all parts of the county.  They have some amazing footage of the local area and members restore and repair old film.

Dr Susan Deal is a historian with a particular interest in everyday life in the Victorian period and is a member of the Victorian Society and editor of their South Yorkshire Group regional newsletter.

The raffle (donations of a prize are most welcome) will be in aid of the National Star College in Cheltenham.

For those wanting to make a weekend of it there will be an informal gathering at the Premier Inn Canwick on Friday evening, a more formal dinner in Lincoln on Saturday evening and a visit on Sunday morning. 

For more information or too advise that you plan to attend the gathering please email me.

[The date for next year is provisionally Saturday September 27th 2014 when it is hoped we will have guests from both Canada and Pennsylvania].

A Lincolnshire Shepherd

Lincolnshire Life July 1969
(purchased on eBay April 2013)
photograph by H D Martineau

"George Farmery lives in Old Bolingbroke.  We nearly described him as a 'typical' Lincolnshire shepherd - and perhaps he is if his care and solicitude for his sheep are the yardstick for a good shepherd.  But Mr. Farmery, now 77 years of age, has been shepherding since he clipped his first sheep at the age of thirteen, sixty four years ago - and shepherds with sixty-four years service are few and far between.  A resident of Old Bolingbroke for 30 years, George Farmery was born in a family of 10, at nearby Asgarby [sic], a weakly baby who was not expected by the doctor to live more than a month.  Yet he is still working regularly and out and about in all weathers.

Where sheep are concerned he has done everything.  Who, for example, can imagine driving 1132 sheep through the middle of Boston with only his dog in support?  George did it in 1931.  He once caught and clipped 70 sheep in a day when the pay for clipping was only 3/- a score - and would the wool as well.  Only a year ago he clipped 18 sheep in 2 1/2 hours before 7.30am., and at sixty-five walked for 14 hours and 7 1/2 miles with 400 sheep on one bottle of lemonade for sustenance.

A salute, then for George Farmery, Lincolnshire Shepherd, survivor of a diminishing race.  He and his kind will not be seen again."

George James FARMERY was born 29.4.1892 in Asterby and baptised there 29.5.1892, son of Joseph FARMERY "Mr James Walton's foreman", and his wife Fanny.

Joseph FARMERY age 24 labourer of East Barkwith (son of James FARMERY deceased) married Fanny OVERTON age 19 of East Barkwith (daughter of John OVERTON carrier) at East Barkwith 12.6.1876.

The family were living at:
1876 - East Barkwith (marriage)
1877 - South Willingham - birth of daughter Mary Ann
1879 - Asterby - birth and baptism of daughter Fanny
1881 - Glebe, Asterby (census)
1883 - East Barkwith - birth of daughter Hannah
1889 - Hatton - birth of daughter Martha
1891 - Foreman's House, Asterby (census)
1893 - Asterby - birth and baptism of son George James
1894 - North Willingham - burial of daughter Fanny
1894 - North Willingham - birth of daughter Maud Miriam
1901 - village, Calcethorpe (census) - George was a scholar
1911 - Gayton le Wold (census) - George James was a farm labourer.

The 1911 census shows that Joseph and Fanny FARMERY had been married 34 years and that only 5 of their 10 children were still living; I have yet to identify the 4 children who died as infants.

Joseph FARMERY was born in 1851 at East Torrington and was the grandson of George FARMERY of Walesby who married Anne PUTTERGILL 12.6.1816 at Faldingworth.

George James FARMERY married Ellen BOSNELL in 1916 and they had three children Doris M, Basil R and Margaret Eve.  Ellen FARMERY of 35 Alma Place, Spilsby died 20.3.1974 and in 1977 George remarried Agnes Maud HUBBARD (nee SMITH) widow of George HUBBARD. 

George James FARMERY of 33 Old Market Avenue, Spilsby died 7.1.1979 and his widow Agnes Maud FARMERY was living in Bardney and died in Lincoln 3.11.1987.