Cowman - Jack Sizer

After leaving a farm near Haverhill, Jack Sizer came to Halstead in 1933 to work for the Baker family at Highwoods Farm, Russels Road. He started off as a general farm labourer, progressing to Head Cowman at the time when milking was done by hand. He is seen here leading a docile bull "Fordson Radiant" through the farmyard in 1941. During World War II he supervised girls from the Land Army who helped out on the farms and also local women who went potato picking to supplement their family's needs. He left farming in 1951 to join the railway as a lengthman, but later took over as a ganger, driving a motor trolly up and down the Colne Valley line, to take plate layers to and from their work.