Samuel Hirst was born in Stubbs Walden on his father's farm in the year 1803. In February 1831 at the age of 27 he came to Kellington to take over a farm that formed part of Sir Samuel Crompton's estate..The farm house he moved into was old and run down so he immediately started to build a new property to live in. This house still remains and is used as an elderly person's nursing home. Nowadays it is known as Meadow View but many in the village refer to it as Home Farm.

Samuel Hirst was, by profession, a land and crop valuer as well as a gentleman farmer. He was obviously a meticulous person and he kept a detailed diary of the events of each day. The diaries commenced in 1831 and continued until his death in November 1880. They provide us with an extraordinary window of what life was like in the village almost 200 years ago.

He supplies us with information about his work as a valuer as well as information concerning his own farm administration . He provides details of the cost of grain, sheep, cattle and the wages his labourers received as well as his extensive and busy social life.

There are fifty separate diaries in his collection. Each, of course, are handwritten and some of the entries are extremely difficult to decipher. I have endeavoured to transcribe the diaries exactly as Samuel Hirst wrote them but this has been a difficult task. I have had to correct much of the spelling and introduce some punctuation to make it easier for the reader but some words, place names for example, are written as in the diary.

These diaries are in the possession of Guy Poskitt and I am deeply indebted to Guy for allowing me to read and transcribe them. Moreover he has given permission to have the transcripts placed on the village website so that they are available to the general public. He is fully supportive of this project and without his co-operation none of this would have happened. Thanks a lot Guy, I am sure that the village will appreciate your generous gesture.

Eric Beechey
September 2009

Note of explanation.
· A word included in brackets means an attempt has been made decipher that word.
· A question mark in brackets means the word cannot be deciphered.
· There are entries in the diaries that are simply too difficult to decipher.

Years completed so far