Saturday 19 August 2017

Harvest History, here in East Lothian...

After a few real wet days were waiting on the main harvest to start, here is a bit of local history...
On Sunday i stopped at Preston Kirk in East Linton Village while cycling with friend Dave...

Go through the gates and walking up the path to the church you will notice all the writing on the grave stones face east.. except one grave whose writings face west...

Here laid to rest is the man who started the Agricultural Revolution, right here in East Lothian

History Lesson;
In 1786 the Threshing machine was invented and patented here in East Lothian, SE Scotland by a millwright called Andrew Meikle of Houston Mill, East Linton on the river Tyne.
This invention started the agricultural revolution changing a harvesting labour intensive process called flailing that had been in use since the middle ages...


Combining it all...
Then in 1834 American Hirman Moore produced and patented a combine harvester- combining the three processes of harvesting corn; Reaping, Threshing, and Winnowing,
The first combines were horse drawn, then later rhey were steam powered, and then as they are today self propelled with a combustion engine.
These Combines were being made in Scotland and operating in East Lothian by 1939...

Hailes..


Today all around the world the combine harvester still use a threshing device that operates on the basic design as invented right here in East Lothian by Andrew Meikle.
East Lothian`s rich agricultural lands are also known as `The Garden of Scotland`...

Film i made with footage of the 2013 Harvest,
Song is `States of Mind` by Utah Saints


September 2013; An East Lothian Harvest Cycle 2013 from coastkid71 on Vimeo.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I really enjoyed this piece on the Harvest in East Lothian. I'm also from the area and always keep an eye out for the harvest coming in. This year looks like being an excellent harvest they have four dry days this weekend after plenty of rain and will probably get a bumper harvest in early. I really appreciate what you've put together, its at the heart of east Lothian culture and life and you've taken the time to capture it beautifully. I hope things are well with you Coastrider..:)

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