A Lincolnshire Lad Looks Back

BKS SB

RE-PRINTED BY
POPULAR DEMAND
Nocton Estate – The Home of Smith’s Crisps
Len Woodhead worked on the Nocton
Estate, south of Lincoln, for 45 years, starting as a farm hand as soon as he left school in 1952. Here he tells his story, a story which documents not only village life in Nocton but also the vast changes in agriculture which have taken place during his memory; the earlier history of the area, and of the author’s
family’s own part in that history.

Nocton Estate lies in the heart of
Lincolnshire’s prime potato growing
land, and it was for that reason that
Frank Smith, the founder of Smith’s
Crisps, bought the estate in 1936. The 8,000 acre farm was equipped with a light railway system which covered the whole area and was used to move produce around the estate.

During Len’s lifetime, horses, steam
engines and the light railway system
were gradually replaced by tractors,
lorries, and ever-more sophisticated
farm machinery.

This fascinating book is lavishly
illustrated with archive photographs and memorabilia of a time that will be
remembered with nostalgia by many, and
Len’s detailed and descriptive text adds a flavour all of its own to the story.

It will appeal to a wide readership,
including anyone interested in the local history of the area, and those
interested in the general history of
agriculture.

Also available is
Len’s second book:-

A Lincolnshire Lads’s Scrapbook – More
tales from Nocton Estate
In which he has gathered together a
further collection of photographs and
recollections of life in the rural
Lincolnshire he knew as a child and a
young man, living and working in Nocton where employment and social life was centred around the Smith’s Crisps potato farm on Nocton Estate.