In December 2016 these three ledgers were discovered following the death of Robert Millington whose father John (Jack) had been foreman at ‘The Farm’ Bosbury. [Note: There is often a slight confusion in that this is the actual name of the farm]. The farm is one of several owned by the Hawkins family shown on this contemporaneous letterhead.

The following details have been extracted. The original ledgers are held at The Farm. 

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LEDGER 1.

Part 1.
Movement of Livestock from April 15th 1952 to October 10th 1975. It begins:
April 15.1952 12 Grading Bullocks From The Farm, Bosbury to Ledbury Market
April 23.1952 9 Heifers From Hereford Market to The Farm, Bosbury
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July 9.1952 93 Lambs –Dipped From The Farm to Old Court, Bosbury
Aug 11.1952 164 Sheep Dipped From The Farm to Old Court, Bosbury
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Nov 13.1953 71 Sheep (68 ewes 3 rams) From The Farm to Thinghill Court
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Sept 21 1954 66 Ewes From Tom Reece, Peterchurch to The Farm
and ends:
Oct 7.1975 15 Lambs Grading From The Farm to Ledbury Market.
Oct 7.1975 5 Fat Heifers From The Farm to Ledbury Market.
Oct 10.1952 1 Gill the Boer From The Farm to Yapp, Bosbury

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Part 2, written from the back, records pedigree calves born in 1965,66 and 67; eighteen in the first year, then 7 and 12 in 1967.
  1965
The first entry is:
Ear Tag No 1105 / Sex – Heifer / Date – March.9 1965 / Tattoo – J.H.H.W5 / Dam - Benedette T17 / Sire – Studoff Pioneer / name- not given
  1966/67

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Part 3, written from the back, records individual cattle and ear tag with probably the date of birth and tag reference of its offspring from November 1971 to February 1976. The first entries are confusing:

Ear Tag – none / Black Cow Thinghill / Nov.10 / Sex – Heifer / Ear Tag – 1838
Ear Tag – 901 / Pedigree [Cow] / Nov.24 1971 / Calved Dead
Ear Tag – none / Race Horse . Twins / Dec.2 1971 / one Dead / Ear Tag – 1839
Ear Tag - 1250 / Pedigree B4 / Dec.20 / Sex – Heifer / Ear Tag 1841 / Tatto – G6 / Name – Bosbury Sylvia 2nd.Calved yearling To Be Sold
Ear Tag – none / Freesian Cow / Dec.14 / Sex – Heifer / Ear Tag 1840

One cow, tagged 1314, was prolific. She produced a bull calf on 29 Feb 1972, another on 1 Feb 1973, another on 10 Jan 1974, a heifer calf on 30 Dec 1974. In the next year a sad record

Ear Tag – 1314 / Pedigree Cow / Nov.17 1975 / Sex –Twins- Heifers / Ear Tags – 2249 & 2250 Dead Jan. 8.1976 Wrong from Birth

And the last record:

Ear Tag – 1322 / Pedigree Cow / Feb 18 1976 / Sex –Bull / Ear Tag – none Dead Wrong from Birth Lived 4 days. Sold March 22 1975 Cow

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LEDGER 2.

This records the daily work record of people employed at ‘The Farm’ through 1964 to 13 February 1965 and their daily jobs. It forma a detailed record of work on the farm. The first entry is for week ending 28 March 1964 when 21 people were employed.
  See the page
By April they were manuring crops and scuffling and rolling fields.
  See the page
Through spring and summer there was planting beet and mangolds, mowing grass for silage, a lot of spraying and weeding, picking currants in July, picking strawberries, combining oats and baling oat and barley straw in August and then in September extra workers arrived for the hop picking.
  See the page
In October life was back to normal.
  See the page
Field names include Always, Camp, Cold Green, Leeches No. 3, Little Emma, Sugarcroft, Tank and Venn. Crop varieties mentioned are Padarn and Powys Oats.

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LEDGER 3.

This records the daily work record of people employed at ‘The Farm’ through from 17 March 1973 to 9 March 1974. The regular workers right through were Jack Millington, now described as doing Supervision, C. Davies as Abs. [Absent] and Odd., J. & N. Hoskins, L., B. & A. Beeton, Jones, Hadley, J. Harris, Ann, Mrs. Pockett and Mrs. Hadley. Field names include Birchend, Camp, Carrotts, Cold Green, Common, Englands, Gravelly, Lower Staplow, Ram, Tank, Upper Ford, Venn and Always and Oak Hop Yards.

Crop varieties mentioned are Peniarth Oats; Huntsman and Champlain Wheat; Sultan Barley; Brewer, Challenger and Fuggles Hops. They also grew currants, strawberries, sugar beet and mangolds. The book records the estimated crop yields for 1973 — 74 tons of wheat, 54 of oats and 29 of barley. They also had 110 sheep being sheared.

In March Stringing for the Hops begins:
  See the page

The five weeks of the Hop Picking are particularly interesting.
        3-8 Sept.       10-15 Sept.       17-22 Sept.
            24-29 Sept.           1-6 Oct.

It mentions a total of 495 pockets of hops being produced. A hop pocket is a long sack which, when filled with compressed hops, weighs between 75 and 100 kilos, that is 1½ to 2 hundredweights.