I wouldn't even have known about the 'ploughing with oxen' except for what seems like a casual remark of my ggfather George when he was being interviewed by a local press reporter just before his Diamond Wedding in 1931.

As old men will, he was reminiscing about his early life and his working experiences, and holding forth about how farm workers now wanted huge wages that the farmers couldn't afford....'now when ah were a lad.....'

He just casually mentioned Wilstrop. Have found the original news cutting, and all it says is:

"Sixpence a day was his first wage, when, aged 10, he learned to drive the plough at Green Hamerton, where he was born. Oxen he likes as well as horses, having ploughed with them at Wilstrop.

"As a youth Mr Metcalfe shared the first and second award at Wetherby Show in a ploughing contest, and in later years became one of the best ploughmen and thatchers in the Ouseburn district.

"He retired from active work some years ago, after having been for 18 years in the service of the Slingsby family at Thorpe Green Hall, near Little Ouseburn."

My great-grandmother Ann, in the same interview, was scathing about the young women of her day: "Aren't they awful, with their short skirts and powder and paint!"