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Harvest Time
Pictures of Harvest Time from across Dorset.
Dorset is a rural county, with most of its land given over to agriculture. The photographs in this gallery capture some of the transformation that takes place during the months of July and August, as the longer days of sunshine warm the land and turn the colours of the fields from the vibrant greens of spring into the golden yellows of late summer and harvest time.
The long hours of daylight, the heat of the mid-day sun and the warmth of the colours spreading across the landscape make for many idyllic rural scenes and views. Harvest time – pre-mechanisation – was in reality a time of hard labour and even today – with machines to help – there is often only a very short period of time in which to collect in the crop before a weather system sweeping in from the Atlantic brings yet more spoiling rain.
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Another kind of picture, this time in words, of life on the land in centuries past (almost certainly romanticised to some extent) can be found in the works of the Dorset poet William Barnes (1801–1886). Many of his poems were written in Dorset dialect and – as in this extract from A-haulen o' the corn – used the local places, seasons and events as their inspiration and theme.
The hosses, wi' the het an' lwoad, Did froth, an' zwang vrom zide to zide, A-gwaïn along the dousty road, An' seem'd as if they would a-died. An' wi' my collar all undone, An' neck a-burnen wi' the zun, I got, wi' work, an' doust, an' het, So dry at last, I coulden spet, A-haulen o' the corn.
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