Mardler August 2018

Local History
The cultivation of hemp fitted in well with the other types of
agriculture, as it needed little attention during the summer
months, the busiest time for arable farmers. It could also be
grown on the same plot year after year with little or no
deterioration in its yield. When grown in the damp Waveney
Valley bottom on well-manured ground, the crop grew tall, lush
and coarse, like a 12 foot high nettle, suitable for ropes and
sacking, while on thinner and less well-manured land the crop
was less vigorous but the fibres finer, so it could be used for
clothing, especially working men’s smocks. Hemp was also
extensively grown in countless small plots and after retting, the
fibres were often processed in the home and spun into cloth
by the womenfolk.
In the Norfolk Record Office there is an anonymous diary of a
Brockdish farmer, now believed to be the Syleham parish clerk
[thanks to Stephen Poulter for sussing out who the diarist
was]. The diarist’s observations in 1793 went like this:
Jan 21 King of France beheaded.
February 13 died Mr Coleman.
Very dry summer, turnips failed greatly, hemp bad crop, wheat
good, barley, oats, peas and beans very light.
Oct 20 Queen of France beheaded.
[Mr Coleman was a farmer who lived at New Ditch Farm,
Brockdish]
There is also mention of hemplands in the will of Daniel
Spalding, who lived at The Grange in the early 18 th century.
When he died in 1733 his fragmentary, incomplete will
mentions an estate of hemplands ‘purchased of Mr Palgrave’.
Thomas Palgrave, the rector of Brockdish, died some years
earlier, in 1724.
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