Greener Beyond the Hill

  In the early 1940’s, Mary and Tom, a farm labourer, are moving at last from a tiny cottage in the South to their own rented farm within a few miles of Tom’s home ground up North. The rundown farm on the North Yorkshire moors is isolated and the farmhouse dilapidated. Mary, being a town girl and knowing nothing of life on a farm, is envisaging a spacious farmhouse kitchen with plenty of cupboards for storage and maybe entertaining neighbours around a large farmhouse kitchen table, a new life with Tom popping in regularly for a cup of tea and chat. In reality, there is no bathroom; no running water except from a spring; oil lamps for light; and the lavatory consists of a bucket in an outside small brick building. They have sold their best furniture to buy a cow and a horse. They are practically penniless. There is another baby on the way. How does Mary cope with the inevitable mice in the kitchen; learning to hand milk cows; feed a dozen farmers on pig killing days and threshing days; and walk two miles to the nearest village shop. Over the months and years and with the family increasing, Mary struggles. Will she ever adapt? Neighbour Jack, a good-looking bachelor, brings increasing joy into Mary’s lonely and poverty-stricken life although Tom has no time for him. Who is this man and why is he so interested in the Holmes family? A drama unfolds and family secrets unravel…