Agricultural History Gallery

Farrier, Woodbastwick, Norfolk AA98_13563

Woodbastwick, Norfolk. Interior of blacksmiths shop. A farrier shoeing a horse. A working horse would need re-shoeing about every five weeks. Here a hot shoe is measured against the horse's hoof, and the farrier can tell by the mark left how much to alter the shoe. However, the post-war campaign to mechanise agriculture meant that within a decade of this picture being taken there were few working farriers left. Photographed by Hallam Ashley, February 1949

© Historic England

Woad production, Algarkirk, Lincolnshire NMR02_01_00009

Algarkirk, Lincolnshire. A group of man and women cropping woad and collecting it in large wicker baskets. The earliest woad production in Britain dates from the Iron Age. By the 19th century, cheap production and imports of blue dye from indigo plants in Asia led to the woad industry's decline in Britain. The last commercial woad production in Britain was recorded in 1932 in Lincolnshire. Lantern Slide Collection, undated

© Historic England Archive

Foxash Estate EAW171546

Foxash Estate, Ardleigh, Essex. One of a series of Land Settlement Association schemes of co-operative smallholdings set up in the 1930s. It originally encouraged unemployed people to take on smallholdings to grow vegetables for profit. The scheme was wound up in the 1980s, but some smallholders joined a cooperative - Foxash Growers Ltd - which continues to produce today. Photographed by Aerofilms in 1967

© Historic England Archive