Thread: Aglab hierarchy

Hello,
Thought people might be interested in this as a follow-on regarding the aglab discussion under "1901 Look Up Please Arthur James Allen "

Usually, an indoor male farm servant was the lad that fetched and carried for the "missus" - buckets of water, logs, and heavy stuff. Usually, by the time they were about 17, they were fully fledged farm aglab servants and now slept in the barn or outside accomodation with the rest of the unmarried men. They were still fed at the farm table. An older indoor farm servant was often one whose intellect was a little slow or for other economic reasons was more useful in and around the house and dairy.
Tied cottages were mostly reserved for married men, but single workers often lodged with them which helped with the rent.
This type of regime went on until at least the 1950s when I was a child and young person although the titles were different to those of the 19th century.
There was/still is to some extent, a strict hierarchy of farm workers, and wages were paid accordingly. A great deal depended on the size of the farm and what it was mainly producing. Status was jealously guarded.
Starting with the farm servant, indoor and out, including dairymaids and boys employed as living scarecrows and who helped feed cattle(foggers); next came carters and horse/ploughmen and tillmen(later became tractor drivers), then cowmen and cattlemen. Cattlemen and teamsters (in charge of a team of horses or mules) were on a par with shepherds and pigmen where there were sheep and pigs, but stockmen were senior in that they could be in charge of all livestock. Husbandmen (strictly the farmer) was a term used on non-dairy farms and by aglab snobs. Dairyman speaks for itself. At the top of the tree was the yard foreman who oversaw all the others. On small farms an aglab could be a mixture of all the various "trades" but was looked down on by those working as "specialists" on the big farms in the area. He/she was also usually paid less. Estate agents usually ran the big farms for absent land owners.
Subsiduary workers were the woodsmen whose skills demanded a comparatively high rate of pay and were usually either self employed or worked under the direction of the gamekeeper.
Aged aglabs often became the hedgers and ditchers, drystone wall builders, creche makers, and general odd job men around the farm. Women were also aglabs and worked alongside the men.
Seasonal workers, usually Romanies, helped with the harvest of fruit, vegetable, etc. but were also employed for short periods at other times doing other things. They travelled from place to place throughout the year on a routine, but in censuses are often termed aglabs.

Victoria

Thank you Victoria,
That sums them all up very well.. I have a lot of all classes of such workers in my tree.... from the top to the bottom. I have one who was an Ag lab aged 90 and still working who died at 94 in 1854