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Farming in Kelvedon Hatch.

Kelvedon Hatch until the 20th century was a community largely involved with work on the land. All sections of the community: the landowners, the farmers, the tradesmen, and the agricultural labourers had their lives affected by the success or failure of agriculture. One particular period of great change for the farmers and farm workers was the 19th century. English agriculture between 1830 and 1870 enjoyed great prosperity, however, as the American farmers commenced the export of cheap grain, the areas of heavy clay were costly to farm and there was a shift from wheat to other crops and pasture for cattle. From 1874 onwards there was a succession of poor harvests, low prices and livestock losses. This was the beginning of the decline of English agriculture.

This coincided with the agricultural labourers becoming more and dissatisfied with their working and living conditions. A champion for their cause was Joseph Arch of the National Agricultural Labourers Union who campaigned for better wages and housing and promoted emigration abroad.

News from the past: Labourers Meeting
On Sunday April 22nd a religious service was held in the open air (at Kelvedon Hatch), when upwards of 300 labourers with their wives, sons and daughters assembled together to hear addresses from Mr Wedmore, national delegate, and Mr D. Sage, district secretary.
Essex Times 2/5/1877

Kelvedon Hatch had a branch of 40 members and they had wide support - at one Sunday meeting over 800 attended. This led to the establishment of a Wesleyan Chapel on Kelvedon Common.

Mr J.P. Killingback, a former resident of Kelvedon Hatch, then living in Navestock, was the Union's local representative and addressed a meeting of the Union on Navestock Heath.

"......and at the close one young man expressed his determination to go out by the next emigrant ship, and will be accompanied by another provided his family is not too numerous. Some farmers remarked that the Union had already induced their best men to go to the manufacturing district in the North, and now endeavours were being made to send those that remained across the ocean".
Essex Times 13/12/1873

The power of the Union declined as the depression deepened. decades many Kelvedon Hatch families were to leave the parish for the cities and some emigrated to Canada and Australia.

Kelvedon Hatch Farming Images from the 1930s and 1940s