SOMEWHERE about the year 1833, Edward Barham, a Suffolk Farmer, born in 1796, from Badingham migrated to Sussex, and settled at Little Common farm, Tillington, near Petworth. With him he brought a Smythe (Ipswich) corn drill.
The newcomer, with his strange contrivance soon became the wonder of the people of the district, for such a thing was a novelty to these West Sussex Parts.
In those days a large weekly market was held at Petworth and realising the possibilities of such a machine in a district unaccustomed to it.
Edward Barham decided to give a demonstration of corn drilling in the market square of Petworth, and such was the impression created by this exhibition that most of the local farmers immediately wanted to borrow or buy Edward Barham’s drill.
Encouraged by the interest of the locals.
Edward then imported half a dozen corn and root drills from his native Suffolk, and reaped a rich harvest by hiring them out to his neighbours.
In Compiling a Family history you never what you may find. For me the greatest discovery has been so far in not only in finding about my ancestors and where they came from, but also a late 19th Century photograph of my great-grandmother Constance Bridger from the Walter Kevis collection.
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