Samson & Ed taking part in a haypole demonstration at Chagford Show 2010
For those CCA members who didn’t make it to Chagford Show this year, you’ll be pleased to hear that Samson did a stirling job in the much anticipated haypole demonstration. The haypole itself belonged to Wilf Hutching’s father and was used up at Shapley Farm from the turn of the 20th century. This year’s outing to the Show was the first time it has been used since the late 1940’s when a mechanical elevator took over the job.
The pole works using a spring-loaded grab which is raised and lowered as the horse pulls the drive chain. The pole is set at a slight angle so that the weight of the fully-loaded hay grab carries the hay over the top of the hay rick. Back in the day a team of four or five lads would have built up to three ricks in a day, taking down and re-errecting the pole in a different part of the field each time.
Johnny Arden, who used to farm with horses up at Stiniel above Chagford, has a great story about his friend Bunchy accidentally getting his foot caught in the grab and being hauled up in the air above the rick. ‘He was hollerin’ so loud he scared the horse see’, explains Johnny, ‘it must have taken us early half an hour to get him down again!’