Gave a bumpy ride

“The photograph of the horse hay fork brought back childhood memories of when I ran around a farm in

Lanarkshire,” says Ivan Laird. “The letter from Alex Carrie told it exactly as it was.

“These special hay rick bogies were made by the firm of Jack of Maybole. They originally had iron wheels and gave a very bumpy ride. Then small aircraft wheels became available at the end of the war which made a great difference.

“The trailers had an axle at the front with conical ends around which a stout rope was wound. The ends had a clever hook arrangement and could also be tipped up by pulling a lever at the front. The tail end of the trailer had a sheet metal covering. In the field it would be tipped up and backed into the rick as far as it would go and the ropes were pulled out and fastened.

“A gear wheel would be fixed to the front axle and the rick wound on by a handle with a small gear on it which was relatively easy. Sometimes on a big farm a man would be in the field with a horse to pull on the ricks with a wire rope wheel instead. The rick would be pulled on to the point of balance and the trailer tipped back and locked. One did not pull it on too far, as it had to be tipped up manually at the stack.

“My job as a 10-year-old was to lead the horse back and forth at the horse fork and I thought I was ‘Erchie’ – but, if the truth be known, the horse could do the job by itself. I suspect it was so that the rest of the farm staff knew exactly where I was in the hustle and bustle in the stackyard.”

Young fisher lasses who toured Arbroath in 1944 to draw attention to a sale of work. Read more at the top of the left-hand column.