Carbrooke Heritage News October 2014

 

After a beautiful September, October has arrived with a vengeance, reminding us that summer is over. This month we celebrated Harvest.

Although Carbrooke is still an agricultural village, noticeable when the sugar beet lorries and tractors and trailers loaded with hay bales drive through, to and from the farms, these days very few of us are involved with working on the land and producing food. Some of us grow fruit and vegetables in our gardens, but we mainly get our food from supermarkets.

Nowadays harvest seems to pass without much notice - apart from complaining about farm traffic on the roads! Harvest time used to be one of the most important village celebrations, as, ‘all was safely gathered in.’ after the challenge to get everything stored away,  ‘ere the winter storms began, as there was no back up from supermarkets and year round food imports from abroad.

It was also a time to party, and hopefully have some rest after a hectic couple of months.

This year the church was full for the school harvest festival on October 3rd, although the village Harvest Festival service attracted the usual congregation numbers. The food donations which included those from the school, were well down on previous years, (and donated to Watton Food Bank, following the harvest festival), as far as I am aware no harvest suppers or ‘ho-downs’ have been held in Carbrooke this year.

Maintaining the traditions of our community is important to keep the unique aspect of our area, this is what makes Britain such an interesting place to live, indifference and losing sight of our past and identity could lead to a lack of pride in, and breakdown of community. Whether we work on the land or not, the harvest is still important for us, and vital to maintain the food production of our country. So it is still an event to be celebrated and appreciated in whatever way we feel fit.

Our resident model maker has been busy again, and made an old fashioned scale model, hay baler complete with hay bales and sacks of corn, a Shepherds hut and traction engine, all with amazing detail, which have been on display in the church.

Our next Heritage meeting will be held on 22^nd October at 7pm in the Village Hall committee room. All welcome, we don’t have ‘members’, so just come along.

Still interested in hearing any local family memories from World War 1.