Agricultural History Review, Volume 70 Part 1 (2022), p. 142

This book presents a transcription of a diary for the single year 1883 written by the Worcestershire farmer Isaac Sansome and in doing so provides multiple insights into the workings of a small farm on the outskirts of a large city. Extending to 70 acres, the farm is primarily pastoral in nature with orchards growing apples and pears. The city of Worcester provides a ready market for the hay produced on the farm, as well as the fruit and cider, and provides easy access to suppliers of feedstuffs, equipment for the farm, as well as the domestic victuals necessary to maintain life. Unusually for a farming diary, there is little reference to the weather, and certainly no daily commentary.

There is an extensive record of daily income and expenditure which the editor of the book has used to prepare an approximate balance sheet. In the year of the diary, the farm makes a small loss before domestic expenses and goes some way to explaining why he needed to approach his landlord for a reduction in rent at Michaelmas: this is not unsurprising given that this was a time of agricultural depression.

Short summaries are provided at the start of each month before the transcription is presented enabling the reader to understand the main activities in the farming year. Data from the 1881 census, along with local knowledge of the village and surrounding area, has been used to provide an extensive series of footnotes explaining who was who, amongst the farmers, tradesmen and individuals referenced in the diary entries, as well as definitions of terms used.

A number of clear black-and-white photographs are used to illustrate the area, as well as four of Isaac himself at different stages in his life, taken from the family collection. The daily detail of farming activities, sales and purchases, and the social side of life provide the reader with a degree of granularity below that provided in county summaries such as that in Gaut’s Agriculture of Worcestershire. Although this is the only known diary written by Isaac, it is likely that other diaries would add to the story told here of one farmer’s efforts to make a living in a time when making a profit was not the primary focus but rather to be part of the local economy and community.