EVER wondered how the old saying about being 'paid in washers' first arose?
Then, let reader Harry Bradbury explain, because that was the kind of currency he was handed during his boyhood pea-picking days.
Apparently, this was standard farming practice back in the 1880s, with marked washers used as field tokens which could later be redeemed for proper cash at the farmhouse door.
Harry, from Loughrigg Avenue, Clinkham Wood, saunters back to the early 1960s to revive bygone times (familiar to countless middle-aged customers of this colum) when teams of mothers and kids hand-picked peas, beans, carrots, potatoes and sprouts at harvest time.
That was an era when farming was extremely labour-intensive, some time before sophisticated crop-gathering equipment became commonplace.
Harry's open-air experiences came when his family swopped the drab, cobbled-street environment of the St Helens town centre for the green, open expanses of Moss Bank district when they moved into a council house in Clinkham wood area.
"Most folk that we knew in those days had very little money," Harry recalls. "We kids did not expect to get regular pocket-money, although we were grateful if, from time to time, a copper or two came our way."
But there was little prospect of taking on a newspaper round to boost finances. "The waiting list to become a paper-boy was years long. Unlike today, when it's hard to get youngsters to tackle the job."
That's why Harry jumped at the chance to join the pea and bean-pickers after being told by his old chum, Rankin Rowlands, that farmers around Crank and Rainford had begun to take on casual labour.
Rankin said that he was going to join in, and Harry agreed to meet up with him next morning, at the unearthly hour of 5.30am - "equipped only with a little bag of jam butties and a bottle of water."
After a long trek in the direction of Rainford, the pals at last spotted tell-tale signs, in the shape of a bunch of pickers working among the pea rows. Heading towards them, they met up with the farmer who agreed to take the lads on.
Harry remembers him as "a big man with his working trousers held up by sacking string."
The lads were each handed a sack and pointed in the direction of three long drills of peas. Rate for the job, they were told, was one shilling and sixpence for each filled sack (7p in new money).
"At first it seemed easy work," recalls Harry, "but it then seemed to take forever to get the sack full. Once filled, it had to be dragged to a tractor and trailer where it was weighed and any surplus put back into a fresh sack.
"The farmer would then hand out a washer with his initials stamped on it," he adds. "This was originally the currency for farmworkers during the 1800s, hence the phrase about being paid in washers."
But the chums were immensely relieved to learn that these would be later redeemed for cash. Harry remembers seeing whole families crop-gathering together, with young babies in their old-fashioned prams parked at the edge of the field.
He was set a target of seven sacks to fill. "Not easy when your fingers are numb and your back aching." But seven hours later the goal was achieved.
Washers were then exchanged for ten shillings and sixpence (52p). Having some money jingling in his pocket gave a lift to the homeward trek.
Harry handed over half his wage to his mother ("the norm in those days") but he was happy enough to have plenty left over for a visit to the local cinema to see the film sensation of the time, the epic battle film, Zulu.
"Times for some were hard then," Harry signs off, "but the one thing I learned at that early age was the value of money."
THANKS for the superb glimpse back to vanished times, Harry lad, I'm sure that many mature readers will identify with your little tale.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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