OVER the years, firstly when Old Hutton was a fine village and South Westmorland parish and then in South Lakeland, I came to know it fairly well. However I am the first to accept that there's an awful lot I don't know about it.

The parish will have many claims to fame but one of them, although very important, may not be so well known. I was most interested to discover that it is said that Old Hutton was where lime was first used as a manure. This would be about 1800 and on moist grassland. I am unable to say on which farm this first lime was used, but it would be nice to know and it would be great if someone could put me right.

Although I only lived in the old county of Westmorland for a little over 20 years before reorganisation combined the new area into Cumbria, I have a great affection for Westmorland as I'm sure many of you have. Although there will be those who will say it is not politically correct to talk of Westmorland, I don't think you and I are going to be all that worried.

In old Westmorland at the time that first lime was being applied to moist pasture land, when pasture was put under the plough, after being worked into a good tilth it was sown with black oats and, after harvest, it would be given a good dressing of manure in readiness for a crop of barley the next year. Crops of spring wheat are mentioned as having been grown near to Kendal at the time of Elizabeth 1.

One of my useless pieces of information concerns the wearing of clogs. Like a large number of people, I wore clogs in my early days of farm work. They were warm and dry and considered to be cheap, but lads on 10/- (50p) a week may not have agreed they were cheap.

One drawback with clogs was that they tended to play havoc, particularly with the heels of your stockings. This meant that the ladies spent a lot of time darning socks. I believe that in the 18th Century, careful housewives would smear the heels of any of their family's new stockings with melted pitch and then straight away dip them in turf ash, thus helping the stockings to withstand the friction; it goes without saying I never tried it. I'm not too sure I would have fancied it.

The first mail coach left London for Bristol on August 2, 1784. From this, over the years, the mail coach spread throughout England and soon became one of the wonders of the land. And so the mail was carried by coach and horses, up until the coming of the railways, when the mail train took over. Now it appears we are doing away with the mail train and putting the mail back on the road after all these years. Funny old world isn't it?

Dialect word: Elden meaning old wood only fit for burning.

Thought for the day: Farmer Johns, who wasn't too well and so was having a late breakfast, had a visit from farmer Green who said: "Is thou nobbut just gitting up Nathan? I've bin at wark for hours." Farmer Johns replied: "I tell thee what it is Walter! I could lig i' bed while dinner time an' still catch thee afore neet."