{"id":529200,"date":"2025-10-26T13:22:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/529200\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T13:22:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T13:22:15","slug":"fascinating-objects-at-farsley-lit-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/529200\/","title":{"rendered":"Fascinating objects at Farsley Lit Fest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><strong>By Jan Calvert<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Born in West Leeds, best-selling author and archeologist Sally Coulthard presented fascinating artifacts from the countryside as described in her book \u2018A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects.\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>The event took place earlier this week at Truman\u2019s Books as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/farsleylit.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Farsley Literarature Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sally said: \u201cEverything has a story! These ancestral objects tell a hidden history of our<br \/>countryside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She described how any curious person may hold an object and ask it questions \u2013 who made you? Why? What is your purpose? Were you treasured or discarded?<\/p>\n<p>Among the objects displayed were \u2018Chicken googles\u2019 \u2013 tiny spectacles which clip on to the bridge above the beak of a chicken. They were invented when factory farming in the 1930s led to the need to protect the eyes from pecking. Now, a rare object as debeaking was the cheaper option!<\/p>\n<p>Knitting was a real economic sideline for many rural workers who could multi-task if a knitting needle was secured within a wooden sheath fastened to their belt. A collectable item, the wooden \u2018Knitting Sheaths\u2019 were carved and decorated with protective symbols or often given as a love token.<\/p>\n<p>Object No 77 in Sally\u2019s book is a \u2018Bird Scarer\u2019. The wooden rattle tells of rural child labour.<br \/>Sally\u2019s research led her to George Edward, a Liberal MP in the 1850\u2019s. <\/p>\n<p>At six years old, he worked in the newly sown fields for 12 to 14 hours a day, swinging the wooden rattle to ward off birds.<\/p>\n<p>Sally said: \u201cThe objects reveal the often invisible and untold history of the ordinary person in a rural setting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her books explore fascinating insights into natural history and folklore. For further details,<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sallycoulthard.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see Sally\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Fantastic Farsley Lit Fest continues this week with something for all the family, including An<br \/>evening of Gothic Horror, Horrible Histories with Terry Deary and a full day of author<br \/>workshops for families on Children\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/farsleylit.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Farsley Lit Fest\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sponsored content<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"638\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2024-10-31-at-18.31.46-638x900.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-164818\"  \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sunnybankmills.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.sunnybankmills.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jan Calvert Born in West Leeds, best-selling author and archeologist Sally Coulthard presented fascinating artifacts from the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-529200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115440684921184551","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}