The History of Ruddington Depot
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The Pre-War Site
Productive farmland
Valuable as this piece of countryside was as a source of informal recreation, its primary purpose was agricultural, to grow crops and rear animals. The square mile overlapped part of three family farms. The Piddocks lived at Elms Farm and bred horses. The Cripwells lived at Fields Farm and the Richardsons lived at Moor End Farm, which were both mixed farms.
Jack Bagguley became a farmer’s boy at the age of 14 and went to work at Fields Farm:
“I left school at 12 o’clock on the Thursday before Good Friday, and I was at work driving the drill horses at 1 o’clock, drilling corn with three horses with my Dad and Charlie Wing. There were a lot of arable fields, and it was all good land. It grew all sorts of crops, barley, wheat, oats, potatoes, sugar beet. There was grassland as well. Round Gibbies Brook was all grass; grazing for beasts. Fowemer Hill had sheep on it, a lot of sheep. They were brought down from Scotland after the Spring lamb sales.”
The Story > Chapter 1 > Section 1.03