| We moved to Plumpton Farm Institute spring 1951, where I enjoyed country life to the full. My friend Val and I enjoyed helping around the farm especially bottle feeding orphan lambs. We collected the bottles of warm cow’s milk from the milking parlor. The bottles were glass with solid rubber teats that fitted into the bottle tops. In the milking parlor the cows had their stalls with name, like Blue Bell, above each. The stockman took the milking machine to each cow, think it milked 2 at a time, and then the milk was poured into the cooler. I'd watch the milk trickling over upright pieces of metal to cool it. It then went into churns and was taken to the end of the lane to await collection.
Orphan lambs were in a pen, outside, which was surrounded with straw. We held the lambs with one hand under the chin while they sucked from the bottle.
One afternoon I arrived home from school to find notices saying the animals had foot and mouth. Across the field pits were being dug and fires burned. Dad said, they could not be cured and had to be killed and burned or put into lime pits. Buckets of disinfectant were placed at the entrance to every field. Val and I stayed away from the farm and the fields until the new animals arrived.
During the last outbreak of foot and mouth I had about 100 sheep and would often think back to Plumpton and the foot and mouth outbreak. My sheep are kept as they were in the 50's, outside all year, including lambing outside using hurdles and straw. Hurdles were woven from hazel or willow and topped with straw thatch.
Submitted by: Bunty
Location: Plumpton Farm Institute, Sussex
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