Archival history
MERL archive collection context (Title: RON CREASEY COLLECTION, Ref: D DX19260) - 'Ron Creasey was born in Hull in 1929, and was evacuated to the village of Sproatley, a few miles outside Hull, at the age of twelve. After school he started doing general farm work at 14, and at the age of 17, in 1946, he was hired at the Hull hiring fair, as a horselad. He worked for two members of the Caley family, for John Caley at Carr Farm, Flinton; and for Norman Caley both at Lane End Farm, Marton, and Old Farm, West Newton. He carried on working with horses until 1960. He then worked as a shepherd in the Cotswolds for a year, before becoming a farm bailiff for FJ Parsons in Sussex, who was involved with breeding polled Sussex cattle.', Castle, William. 2012. Ron Creasey: Last of the Horselads. Ipswich : Old Pond Publishing Ltd. P99-105 - 'Holderness also had another completely different manner of driving; instead of using a pair of cords, drivers used a single line to control a horse. This was called a check, or a check rein, and a horse that was trained to work in this manner was called a check horse. The use of the check rein was confined to Holderness and the Fens, though the detail of the Fenland driving differs somewhat from the Holderness style. Driving with a single line was also common in the low countries of Holland and Belgium, and it was probably from there that this method of driving came, when Dutch engineers were brought in to drain the land. This style of driving was quite distinct and never spread very far from these particular areas. // Round here they'd a check and a false line; if you see any old photos of people round here, all these horses have a check. Now the further you get to where it's lighter, the less they have checks. I never heard much about 'em driving them on the Wolds in these checks, but I could be wrong. But certainly the further you got down here, as the land got stronger, they used checks more. // The check rein consisted of a length of leather, the front of which split into two, one piece going to each side of the horse's head, the nearside piece being shorter than the offside. These both terminated in a length of chain with a clip on the end. Although not necessarily the case on other farms, in Ron's experience the nearside chain was put through the underside bit ring, passed under the jaw and clipped into the offside bit ring, while the offside chain went through the offside bit ring and was clipped back into itself. The most common type of bit used on check horses was a curb bit and chain, though some wore plain 'bucket handle' snaffle bits. The rear end of the check rein went between the tops of the hames, where it was then formed into a loop, onto which was tied the cord that went to the driver's hand. The end of the cord held by the lad was also formed into a loop, and was significantly thicker and stiffer than the rest of the cord, extra material being added to this end when the rope was made. On some farms were the farmer had not bought these tapered plough cords, the lads simply spliced on a length of old halter shank themselves to make this loop. // In use, the check rein was pulled for the horse to turn to the left, and given two or three short jerks for the horse to turn to the right. Much of the control of the horse, however, was by the voice, the severity of tone indicating how much the horse should turn. // You pull to go arve, and you only just had to shak yer rein and they go gee back; and you talken to 'em a good lot, and the more severe your voice was, the more they knew they'd to keep coming. // When a check horse was used in a team of horses, it was the key to controlling the whole team. In Holderness it was usual for the check horse to be on the nearside, with the offside horse tied by its halter shank to the check horse's hame ring, and a false line to the check horse's trace. A false line was similar in construction to the check; the front was divided into two parts, with a length of chain at each end, which clipped onto the appropriate side of the horse's bit, the offside chain being five inches long, and the nearside six inches. The piece from the nearside passed under the horse's throat, where it joined the offside piece, passing over the offside of the collar, and over the back of the horse, before being clipped onto the check horse's trace just in front of the swivel. So when the check horse slowed down or stopped, pressure would be applied to the false line, and thus to the other horse's bit. When turning, the check horse brought the other horse round to the left by the pull on its halter shank, and when moving to the right would physically push the offside horse round, if it had not already responded to a vocal command. // When ploughing with a check horse, Ron's experience was of only having one line going to the check horse, with the other horse controlled by the false line, but when harrowing with three abreast, two reins were used. The check horse was on the nearside, the middle horse's halter shank was tied to the check horse, but it also had a side string to its offside, to help bring the team round to the right. The offside horse then was tied to the middle horse with its halter shank and had a false line on it. (See Figure 2.) // In practice different people did different things, so although Ron had the check horse as the nearside horse when harrowing with three horses, one of the photographs of Ted Simpson not only shows the check horse in the middle of a three-horse team, but also shows that there is a side string on the nearside horse. Ron also never tied the halter shank of a check horse to its neighbour, but there were some who did. // I was talking to a feller and when he was driving check 'osses, when they were rolling they always tied the check 'oss' head in. For why I don't know. He didn't know, but that's how they did. But if they'd been a good check 'oss he wouldn't have liked it. // ... // Although the use of the check rein was very common in Holderness, not all horses were check horses. Some farms did not have check horses, and of those that did, perhaps only one in three was a check horse, usually the most responsive horses which would readily respond to verbal commands. The other horses could be driven with a pair of reins, of course, but even on farms where the check was preferred, having a third of the horses in a check did allow much of the work to be done in this manner, as in a team of three horses, which was common for harrowing as well as ploughing, only one of those three would need to be in a check. // Since the use of check horses was not universal, learning to drive a check horse was a skill not all horselads had acquired when they moved to a different farm. So Ron's first experience of driving Cobby, which was a check horse, during the freeze of 1947, would not be uncommon. // The first time they sent me up with three 'osses, Cobby was on front as a first 'oss. You rode the nearside horse, of course, but the horse we had on the front was the real nearside horses, they was the best horses, so you put them out front as a unicorn. I was on my own, I'd never driven with a check in me life and I got in this gateway, and for some reason we got stopped, and he come short round on me, and he ended up looking through the gateway the opposite way to what we were coming. I could touch his ears and I was sat on my nearside horse, and would he do as he was told? Hell, we had a pantomime, and I kept looking round to see if anyone was looking, 'cause that was the last thing you wanted, people to see you'd got in a predicament. // Course, what I'd done was I started him off and not stopped him, and the horse he was, it wasn't nowt to him to come up 'side of' the other one. // One instance when a horseman always needs to be careful not to turn a team of horses too sharply is when turning at the headland with a set of harrows, but with a check horse it could be more difficult to control the turn. // Most of them horses, if you started to turn 'em on the headland, if you didn't do anything, they'd come right round and come back on their harrows. I mean, we only had five yards to turn 'em in. When you were young, if you didn't stop 'em, the harrows would stand up on their ends, and I've seen 'em go straight back onto 'em, on their heads; get all the three harrows up in the air and all go down on 'em. // Despite this sort of problem, for some horsemen the advantages of using a check rein outweighed the disadvantages, particularly when the horseman had to be able to adjust an implement while on the move, so those like Ron who liked using check reins were keen to promote their advantages. // Where these checks came into their own was when you was doing row-crop work, 'cause on a lot of occasions when we were among taties, we had two horses in tandem, and if we had two check horses, one in front of the other, we had just the one line on each horse, whereas if you hadn't the checks you'd have to have two reins off each horse in your hands. Very often if you hadn't two check horses, you had a check on your fost horse and a pair of strings on your second horse, because when you were two in line among root crops, when you got to ' end, your 'oss on the front had to turn while your other horse got out, 'cause your headlands were only five yards. So you imagine your two horses coming out, you had to pull and check to make him stand, while the other horse pulled out, and then you turned and come back into your row again. Once you got going, you only had to talk to 'em, and when we were scruffling or shimming root crops you just had your check, and it was considered very good. // However, there were some farmers and foremen, including Charlie Buck, who would not have a check rein on the place, considering them to be inherently unsafe. This was because unlike normal driving when pulling on both reins to stop the horses, pulling on a check just caused the horse to swing round to the left, so stopping a check horse relied heavily on voice commands, which might not be sufficient to stop them in an emergency. When relying on voice commands to control a horse, it was particularly important to remain calm, so when ploughing the first time with Cobby, Ron was given some advice by George Gibson. // I remember the first time I took 'em to plough, and Foreman says, 'You won't swear at that horse, will yer?' // I says, 'No.' // He says, 'No! He'll show you something if you do,' and [I was] ploughing away and when it come to finishing the furrows off, and he was a very fast horse, there was nowt much to pull and he started! // 'Go steady, go steady; steady yer bugger, steady!' And by, his head would go up, and he stood nearly eighteen hands which was very big in those days, and he used to set off to trot. And when you've a check on, you had to check and pull and check and pull; if you pulled they come straight round, you can't stop 'em, that was why this other foreman didn't like 'em, cause if they started, you can't stop 'em! // Anyway, he suddenly appeared and I was going nicely then. He says, 'You've been swearing at that 'oss.' // 'I haven't.' // 'You have. When I was coming across there you was nigh on trotting.' // 'Aye, I couldn't get him steadied up.' // 'No,' he says, 'you'd been swearing at him. I told you not to swear at him. That horse isn't used to being sworn at.' And it was quite right. // Although this incident ended happily enough, it was not always the case. One such incident was related to Ron by George Caley, one of John Caley's brothers, who by this time was farming at Little Humber near Paull. // There were three on 'em ploughing at Bush Farm, and they all had checks and false lines on. And ' Monday morning, a duck got up, and one set off, and by that, they were all gone! And all you can do is pull, and as soon as you pull you come left, so you're pulling and checking. I mean if you keep pulling, if you're up the dyke side, you'd pull him straight into the dyke. But it didn't stop nobody using them, and when they were going to Hull, if the policemen spotted them at ' tram ends he used to make 'em take the checks off and put side lines on.', Old Pond Publishing Ltd. advertisment leaflet - 'New Book for working horse enthusiasts // Hardback book // 216 pages with line drawings and 34 photographs // £19.95 // Order from: // Old Pond Publishing // Dencora Business Centre // 36 White House Road // Ipswich IP1 5LT // 01473 238200 // www.oldpond.com // Ron Creasey last of the horselads // By William Castle // This is the story of Yorkshireman Ron Creasey, one of the last farm horsemen to find work at a hiring fair in 1946, aged just seventeen. // Ron lived in the customary conditions, remained single and was paid just once a year. He loved the life, eventually rising to become Waggoner. // As new methods encroached upon Ron's world, he had fewer opportunities to work with farm horses. However, he retained a clear memory of his early days as a horselad. // During 2006 and 2007, William Castle recorded a long series of conversations with the horseman. This rich stream of knowledge and anecdote - all relating to horses and farming in the East Riding - enabled the author to recreate the traditional skills and practices. // Much of the book is a transcription of Ron Creasey's words. William Castle also draws on his experience of working with horses to provide context and, hopefully, make the information of practical use to today's horsemen and women.', Email, Isabel Hughes of MERL to Ollie Douglas and Alfred VanDeGeer of MERL, 23 October 2012 - 'This gentleman has been using MERL to research hiring fairs, and in particular relating to the equestrian. He has apparently deposited his papers with us already. He has a particular type of horse rein that is unusual and pertains to his research - I think it was used in Yorkshire. He is visiting the reading room this Thursday and would like us to see the rein with a view to having it. Would you be availble to take a look as well. My problem is that the Sandford Award judge is in that day and I shall be tied up from 10.00 - 2.00. We are aiming to meet up around 3.00 but just in case Mr Castle needs to leave earlier it would be helpful to know one or both of you is about. I am assuming that we would be interested in this because of the provenance and subject matter but also because we already have papers relating to his work here. Could you let me know what you think?'
