Again a big sky day here in East Lothian. Forecast was for afternoon showers, would not be for a while looking at the big skies of fluffy clouds rolling by in the strong westerly wind...
Along the trails towards the river Tyne...
On route i stopped at Smeaton Church in East Linton Village to show you something, the grave of someone who played an important part in our industrial revolution...
Where ever you live around the world and are reading this blog you will - unless in the Aussie Outback, Sahara or Dubai, be living near agricultural land or there is land outside the city where you live and so be near a Combine Harvester, right?
If you google search the history of the Combine Harvester you will read it was invented in the USA by Hiram Moore in 1834.
The basic idea of the combine which was first towed by horses came from the Threshing Machine, a stationery device invented in 1784 that separated the corn from stalks and husks. This invention which broke the time old method of using the hand labour of flails which had been used since the middle ages and was labour intensive...
Where was this revolutionary machine invented?, right here in the rich agricultural lands of East Lothian at Houston Mill on the river Tyne near East Linton, by Andrew Meikle who was a Mill right and engineer and is buried here where he lived and worked...
This old threshing machine lies in a field in Berwickshire...
Along with these machine was the water Mills along our river tyne which ground the corn to flour.
These old Water Mills would be running non stop at this time of year grinding as each crop of the various corns were harvested...
Preston Mill dates from the 18th C and was also run during the 18th C by Andrew Meikle, and is still in working condition and maintained by the National Trust...
Moving on, past the dovecot, or as known locally a `doocot`
Onto the river Tyne trail to Haddington...
And sweet single track...
Near Haddington and a rain shower was rolling in...
Water of life...
And the other water of life, from Glenmorangie... -:)
Up the single track trail through the Plantains to the Garletons, hard climb standing up on the single speed...
Kids have played in these woods for years as the carvings on beech trees show...
Sitting out the rain for 10 minutes under the trees and out into fresher air cleared by the rain...
And up onto Barney Hill on the Garleton Hills...
And the amazing views of our county from here...
Who would live anywhere else with big skies like this?... -:)
And home down the Ridge road trail, hard to watch where your going with harvest views like this...
Yes- your comments on agriculture and the machines used hit very close to home here. There are relics of the threshing machine to be found here as well. I'll have to see if I can find one and post it on my blog someday here.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that although the existence of such machines has been around for many years, corn was still shucked by hand here in the U.S. Mid-West up until the early 20th Century, since those machines were too expensive to own for most farmers here. My grandfather told me stories of gathering corn by hand when he was a youth. (A son of a transplanted Scotsman, by the way)
Love the sheep sticker on your head tube!
Thanks again for such great posts!
Be cool to see some old machines from where you live and ride Ted. I love coming across old farming machinery out on trails...
ReplyDeleteOur local Post Office had the sheep stickers!, i need to go and get some more for all my bikes -:)