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Threshing in Shropshire
A new traction engine is powering a threshing machine. The barn is also new and is made of corrugated iron which was becoming more popular at this time. (Image courtesy of Shropshire Archives) Photo owned by Mr R. Griffiths (For further information see...
Threshing took place on a wooden threshing floor in a barn. A number of sheaves were laid on the floor and no more than three men would walk round and round hitting them to separate the corn from the chaff and straw. These would be collected up by other workers to give the threshers a rest.
Threshing provided much needed work in the winter months. The introduction of threshing machines led to the “Swing” riots in the 1830s when threshing machines were attacked. Steam powered machines were commonly seen by the end of the 19th Century. There was still work for labourers pitching the sheaves into the machines and collecting the chaff and corn in sacks however because threshing machines were too expensive for most farmers they were taken from farm to farm by contractors who had their own workers. They worked long hard days but were usually very well fed by the farms they visited. When a farmer had enough corn and straw to last a few weeks the contractor moved elsewhere and would return at a later stage.
This method of working was already changing by the 1930s when larger farms had their own threshing machines or bought cheap foreign grain, or “cakes”, for their cattle. It had disappeared altogether by the 1950s, when combine harvesters, which both reaped and threshed corn at the same time, appeared on the scene.
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