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Angus Holmes outside his home across the river from St James.
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Harvest Festival September 2003 Talk by Angus R Holmes
Tonight we have come together to sing our praises and thanksgivings to God for yet another harvest.
We thank God for the good earth, the richness of the soil and also we thank him for the rainy days and all that is required to make a good harvest.
Not only the harvest of grain, but also the produce, the vegetables, the fruit, the flowers all around us grown in our gardens. They are symbols of our thanks to God.
These big combine harvesters make short work of the harvest. In the late 19th Century the whole of the harvesting was done by hand. Teams of men mowed the fields with scythes. They toiled day and day out. Then there would be other men following up behind bundling it up and tying it all up by hand. It was a long harvest.
People came from far and wide to help in the harvest field - in fact they downed tools to be there to give a hand. It was so important to them that it was gathered in safely. It was what you might call their lifeline. They thanked God for their harvest and sang their praises just like we are doing tonight.
As the years went by the horse drawn reaper became obsolete, more or less anyway.
After the reaper came the horse drawn binder. This particular one was called the Macormick Binder. It was designed and built in America, shipped over in boxes and assembled in the UK. This machine was an absolute Godsend in terms of advanced farming. The corn growing farmers came from all over the countryside to see this machine in operation for the first time. They could not believe its capabilities. To be honest, it put a lot of people out of work at harvest time and this machine became a vital part of the arable farmers equipment until the combine harvester came and took over. I am sure there will be many binders left now retired in cart sheds throughout the land.
I personally have not been involved with the grain harvest quite so much as I was during the war years. Everything was in short supply.
We could not get delivery of a tractor immediately. Rubber tyres were out of the question but we managed.
In order to boost food production we had to plough out good grassland and meadows to grow grain for the war effort. It was our contribution.
The Government formed a ploughing out scheme - in other words what they said had to be ploughed. It became compulsory and so it went on.
We were dairy farmers, stock farmers call it what you will. WE knew nothing about ploughing and growing corn. My eldest brother had gone to war and my second brother took over the livestock enterprise. I left school at the early age of 15 and started farming.
My job was mainly ploughing and cultivating the good land preparing for the grain harvest.
The fields from Birstwith river bridge to Hampsthwaite river bridge were all pasture and meadow land. In all about 120 acres farmed by the Lister family and some by the Holmes family.
That was good land, good fertile ploughing land. Yields were reasonably good. We also had to plough out hillside land which was much harder and not as productive. Plough and cultivate day after day but we managed.
And so after ploughing and cultivating this land was ready to grow grain for the war effort. We did that for many years.
As time went by farming became more efficient - new machines came onto the market, fertilisers became more obtainable and yields got better and better.
By the end of the war we were able to put back to grass, back to its former glory some of the land that had been ploughed. Yet the land we farmed on the riverside remained in cultivation for many years after the war and to this day is still in cultivation.
From those days to the present time I have thanked God for having had the privilege and the good fortune, along with good health, which has enabled me to care for God's land. He has been my provider and I his guardian and keeper of his soil.
There is an old saying :- "Many hands make light work" and to that we can add, many hands on the farm at harvest made the occasion one of sharing in the gathering in. That was how it used to be. Neighbours worked together and when all was gathered in they celebrated with a harvest festive meal.
Jesus looking around him said, "The harvest is truly ready but the reapers are few."
The harvest of our lives depends on our willingness to show a care and concern for each other. Our lives are enriched when someone shows us care and concern.
Like fresh mown hay it is sweet and is good to our senses. It took warmth and effort to produce the hay. It takes warmth and effort to show love and caring, to accept people as they are, to welcome and encourage.
Such people are the reapers Jesus looked for.
You remember; he worked, he fed and took his followers aside to rest for a time. His actions were to care for the whole person. We care, we share and we reap in our lives a fruitful and joyful harvest. At least that is what we are called to do as people of the church.
There is a note of caution however, the harvest will fail without the daily help and strength of the Lord of the Harvest.
CORN DOLLY
The last sheaf of corn cut was treated with special respect and used to make corn dollies. The original purpose of the corn dolly was to preserve the spirit of the corn throughout the winter.
Come January, on the first Monday following twelfth night, known as plough Monday, the corn dolly would be ploughed back into the soil so that its spirit was released and ensure another good harvest.
Let us pray.
Almighty God our heavenly father, from whom comes every good and perfect gift, we call to remembrance your loving kindness and tender mercies, which have been ever of old and with grateful hearts lift up to you the voice of our thanksgiving, for all the gifts that you have bestowed upon us and all mankind.
For the life which you have given us, and the world in which we live, for the work we are enabled to do, for the truth we are permitted to learn, for whatever of good there has been in our lives, for the hopes and resolves that lead us on to better things, for the order and constancy of nature, for the beauty and bounty of the world, for day and night, Summer and Winter, seedtime and harvest.
For the diverse gifts of loveliness and joy that every season brings. Especially for the harvest, its boundless store and for all the fruits of the earth which sustain and gladden our life.
Amen.