AGRICULTURE IN WILTSHIRE IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR 



Illustration from advertisement for the Lister milking machine, published in Devizes Gazette, 11 Feb 1915 



ploughs were available - one at Dean Station and 

 the other at Dinton Station. After that a steady 

 stream of different sorts of tractors arrived so that 

 by November 1917 there were 64 in the county. 



Throughout 1918 there were regular reports to 

 the Agricultural Executive Committee of the arrival 

 of new tractors and of their deployment. For 

 example, in January 1918 a batch of 10 Titan 

 tractors with Cockshutt ploughs arrived; 2 went to 

 Chippenham, 2 to Pewsey, 5 to Tetbury and 1 to 

 Swindon. Titans continued to dominate, although 

 the government did buy one Overtime from 

 Skurray's in Swindon. In February there was a 

 delivery of 1 Parrett tractors for Warminster and 

 Salisbury followed by 10 Saundersons. The first 

 Ford tractors seem to have come in April together 

 with 2-furrow Oliver ploughs. They went to 

 Swindon, Chippenham, Warminster and Salisbury. 

 At the end of April 1918, 93 tractors were in use in 

 the county. During the month they had ploughed 

 5,442 acres and Wiltshire was second in the national 

 league table for the average number of acres 

 ploughed per tractor. The Fordsons were reported 

 as being particularly successful. 59 By the end of 

 1918 tractors seem to have been much more readily 

 available and advertisements appeared in the local 

 press for Titan and Overtime tractors for private 

 buyers. The Strattons, for example, bought a Titan 



tractor in 1918 from T.H.White's for £465 14s.This 

 compares with the £2,425 they paid for a complete 

 steam ploughing set and tackle in 1915. 60 There 

 seems little doubt that the ploughing campaign 

 could not have been undertaken without this 

 injection of new motor tractors. Also this crash 

 programme was the start of a mechanisation of 

 agriculture which continued after 1918. 



MANOR FARM, LITTLE 

 BEDWYN AND PEARL 

 FARM, CHOLDERTON 

 ESTATE 



It is instructive to look at some particular farms 

 and to see what changes took place on them and 

 the extent to which they followed the general trends. 

 Manor Farm, at Little Bedwyn near the Berkshire 

 border, was run by Samuel Farmer and consisted 

 of 1,181 acres, 691 acres of which he owned and 

 the remainder he leased. About a third of the farm 

 was arable; it had a substantial sheep flock and also 

 a dairy herd. 61 Pearl Farm, by contrast, was situated 

 further south on downland. It formed part of the 

 large Cholderton estate owned by H. C. Stevens 

 and had been brought in hand immediately before 



