Listen to the track:
🎶 Wembury, 1881 🎶
(Folk ballad with layered harmonies and steady rhythm based on th 1881 census data when there was the shift from traditional farming to skilled trades)
At New Barton Farm, the land was wide
With boys and hands on either side
Spurrell worked with books and plough
And kept three lads beneath the bough
(Verse 2)
The house was full, the staff slept near
A niece took notes, the way was clear
Three servants ate by the kitchen door
And rose each day at half past four
(Chorus)
And the sea still sang beyond the fields
Where names held weight and the soil still healed
From field to forge, from plough to blade
Wembury’s work was slowly remade
(Verse 3)
Down at Beers Farm, the hearth was shared
By three tight clans who bowed and bared
Hammett and Algate, both ag lab men
Their backs worn through, their boots near thin
(Verse 4)
But George the younger shaped wood with pride
A wheelwright now, with hands still wide
The Dickerson kids went off to school
And learned to read, not just to rule
(Bridge)
The rail came close but not just yet
The talk was of town, the hands still wet
But in each home, a quiet shift
From digging lines to tools that lift
(Chorus)
And the sea still sang beyond the fields
Where names held weight and the soil still healed
From field to forge, from plough to blade
Wembury’s work was slowly remade
(Outro)
In names like Spurrell, Hammett, Algate’s line
The parish left its marks in time
And still today you’ll hear their way
In hedgerows green and skies of grey