55/190

This drainage spade has a tapered blade and was used to cut the third and last spit (a spit being the depth of the spade) in a drainage trench designed to be filled with wood, stone or straw rather than pipes. This spade belonged to John Anstee's great-grandfather,Thomas Hayden, a farm labourer of Great Canfield and High Roding, Essex, who died in 1890.

1 spade: metal; wood

MERL 'Catalogue index' card – 'This type of land drain cutting spade with a tapered blade was used for cutting the last spit in a drain trench. The particular drain trench in this case was to have a wood, stone or straw filling, not drain tiles. In parts of North Essex, on the heavy East Anglian boulder clay, straw and wood filled drain trenches were common until the early years of the present century [20th century]. This spade which belonged to T.Hayden, a farm labourer, measures a total length of 30 inches, but the wooden handle is missing. The blade is 11 inches long and 3.5 inches wide at the top.', MERL 'Catalogue index' card – [55/191] – 'Surface drains are of two kinds – open and covered. Whatever the depth of the open variety they must be made with sloping sides in order to prevent the crumbling down or undermining of the sides. Covered drains on the other hand are trenches made to the depth of two or three feet, and then filled with stones or straw and other waste material within a foot of the surface. On the other hand draining tiles may be placed in the trench in order to carry away the water. While the open trench tapers almost to a point at the bottom, those intended for tiles must be more or less rounded at the bottom.'

1850 - 1860

Wood, Metal

Anstee, John (Agent)