Andrew Rowland, Managing Director reflects on the peat industry in the past.

 

The Land
Cutting back peat by hand you didn't need such large acreage so the ownership would probably have been about 15 or 20 acres prior to the war.  It was only after the war when larger areas were required for horticultural peat that we started purchasing more land.

Somerset is make up of lots of small agricultural areas and the Enclosure Act ensured that even peat moors were very much enclosed and in separate ownerships so there wasn't the opportunity to buy large acreages of land which would be ideal for peat production.  If you look at peat production in the rest of the country they were bought as common or waste land in 300 or 400 acre lots and even thousand acre lots and certainly during the '50's peat land was to a certain extent considered waste land.

Peat Selling
We're actually fifth generation.  My great grandfather was cutting peat for burning fuel, my great, great grandfather before him was cutting peat as well, and my grandfather up until the war was cutting peat for burning fuel.  They used to cut it here and take it to Ashcott or Shapwick Station and load it on to trucks to be taken to either of their main areas of selling during the winter period.  So they would send, say, a railway truck down to Salisbury and then take the horse and cart down to Salisbury for the weekend and then go round their groups of customers that they would sell burning turf to.  So that's how the craze started.

Eat, drink and dig peat
You know obviously peat and cider goes together very well.  My grandfather in the '50's and prior to that always had to make cider as part payment for piecework.  My grandfather was a great cider drinker.  He liked to have a yarn and smoked a pipe so you know I think that bread and cheese and onions and cider were very much the social element of the peat production.  It was drunk during the day and probably a fair bit at night afterwards.  My grandfather used to say they used to provide them with a gallon of cider and they didn't used to get drunk because they would sweat it out.

Around the war years
As well as peat being used to keep homes warm, they actually used peat to help lay temporary runways for aircraft.  it helped a soft bedding effect.

It was only during the Second World War that peat was required for horticulture for Britian so they naturally looked for sourcing peat local to the Home Counties.  Somerset was one of the areas that was able to cater for that need and so during the war and just after the war they started milling their peat.

Hand to machine

 

 

 

 

 It was all then in the '60's we had the introduction of Steba peat digging machines from Germany so there was very little hand cutting done.  The only hand cutting done was actually to cut the end out of the heads and that was cut by diamond saw. I had helped with that but it was not actually cutting peat for burning fuel or anything like that.

My father was obviously one of the primary players in that he was the first man to introduce plastic sacks into the industry.  At the time everything was loaded in hessian sacks.  They were quite expensive hessian sacks so what used to happen is that the lorry would deliver the peat, break the wire tie and then tip out the peat and then bring back the hessian sacks so that we could reuse them again.  Father also introduced peat cutting machine from Germany (Stebas) and 360 degree excavators so the industry has seen quite a change in the last four or five decades.  It was in the early '60's that Italian plastic sacks became available and they were at a price that was like a quarter of the hessian so it looked a very goods idea that we could actually have a product that we could sell including the price of the packaging.

The Steba also gave you opportunity to harvest in the summer and more opportunity to bag in winter whereas if you had wet and rainy days it was hard to earn your money in piece work.  I think in general most people appreciated that lifestyle and regular income rather than having to earn lots of money during the summer months which predominantly would have been how hand cutting piece work was done.

The winter jobs were few and far between and although it looked like good money during the summer the regular income over the winter of bagging certainly was preferable.  Obviously all the people we had employed stayed on with us you know. We have had and still have people with 30 or 40 years working relationship with us so they did welcome the change in my opinion.  I wouldn't say we were a big peat producer we have have always employed around about 15 to 25 people and traditionally we have employed families believe it or not from Meare and Westhay, Godney, Chilton Polden.  It's always been a working relationship with local families.

Employment didn't drop because I think all the industries, all the businesses here were expanding and providing jobs for quite a lot of people.  When Fisons were at their biggest they probably employed about 120 people.  They were much bigger than us.  They were 3 or 4 times the size of what we are.

The Steba, because of the way it worked across fields, actually makes it own drainage pit as well and it made it more possible for drainage to be put in.  I think then the greater uses of the pumping system by the drainage board made it more possible to get the water into new ditches because obviously we are pumping water we have to have somewhere for it to go, and the new ditch system would improve in the '50's and '60's both for agriculture and for peat extraction so it worked hand in hand.  Obviously peat fields of my grandfather's were abandoned prior to the war because they couldn't get out the peat because the water table was too high.  What enabled the access for peat extraction after the war was mechanical pumps, which allowed you to be able to dig down to the blue clay.  So we went back to fields that we had previously abandoned and started extracting to a lower level.

IN AND AROUND MEARE

St Mary's Church

Meare

Manor Farm (The Bishops Summer House)

Meare

The Meare school

built 1840
Consecrated by Bishop Drokenford in 1323. Built by Abbot Adam of Sodbury. The tower and chancel are what remain from the original church. Built in the 13th century this was a favourite retreat for the Abbots, who had to reach it by rowing over in their state barge.

"Built by subscription"

Looking to the Misty and Mystical Tor from Meare

The Abbots Fish House

Meare

The flooded levels after a few rainy days. 
The Tor and Glastonbury are rich in history and are surround in myth's and legends.     Built in the 14th century. The house has two storeys, the lower for storing and curing the fish and the upper divided into two for dwelling by the fishermen,. These fish were destined for the Abbey kitchens. Here was once Meare Pool. Which covered 400-500 acres in the year  1500.  

TOOLS OF THE TRADE
From Ireland. 

This spade from Ireland is called a "slean", pronounced slawn. 

 

 

 From England.

This is a turf splitter. 

 From Scotland.

This is a turf lifter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 From England. 

This flat bladed spade is designed to give a good cutting edge. 

The back of the spade was used to cut the peat vertically and then to cut along the bottom of the mump and lift the turf.

 
The peat was cut into cubes called "mumps", each mump is about 10" x 12" and 8" high. The Cutter will mark out an area of 6 mumps by 3 mumps deep.  Once removed the mump is then divided with a turf splitter into three. It is then placed on end for a period of two - three days. After this time it ready for a process called "hiling" which is a initial drying process. These hiles are left for 6 weeks or so and after this time they are ready for "ruckling".  The turfs are built into a bee-hive shape which is around 8 feet high.  Spaces are left between the ruckles so the air can dry the peat out.
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