Book detail:

Title:

A Southdown farm in the 1860's.

Author(s):

Maude Robinson.

Parish(s) covered:

Sedlescombe.

Precis:

Maude Robinson was born in May 1859 at Saddlescombe where her father, Martin Robinson, had a 900-acre farm. Her parents were both devout Quakers and the family travelled to Brighton twice a week to attend the Friends Meeting House in Ship Street. Her childhood was idyllic and she wrote an account of it that appeared in the Sussex County Magazine in 1935. A South Down Farm in the Sixties was issued by J.M. Dent in 1938. When she was a child the Saddlescombe farm supported 900 sheep that were divided into three flocks. They were folded on arable land by night, but each flock roamed the downland by day followed by its shepherd and his dog. The book provides many interesting insights into agricultural practices she also explains what home life was like on a farm in such a secluded situation. In 1872 Maude Robinson went to a private boarding school at Lewes. The school regime was Spartan but the mistresses were kindly and a good education was provided. One by one the older Robinson children moved away from Saddlescombe until, after the death of her parents, only Ernest, who ran the farm, and Maude remained. Both of them loved the downland and took an interest in its wildlife. Maude Robinson also kept bees as a pastime, made dolls that she sold in order to raise money for charities and wrote both articles and short stories. Her Christian faith and Quaker principles remained firm to the end, which came in 1950.

First Published:

2004 (1935).

ISBN:

1898941939.

Publisher details:

Name: Country Books.

Address: Courtyard Cottage, Little Longstone, Bakewell, Derbyshire, DE45 1NN.

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