During the morning the Seigneur of Samarès, Vincent Obbard, led other enthusiasts in showing Islanders and visitors how cider was made. After lunch, they set about piling sheaves of wheat grown in St Lawrence, and stacked in a hay rick, into a threshing machine as Islanders did in the days before mechanised industrial-scale farming.
Mr Obbard and his wife, Ginny, have been giving up their August bank holiday for years to revive Jersey’s farming past and friends did the same to join them for back-breaking work under a baking hot sun.
‘We have been doing it together since the beginning of the manor grounds’ opening and we both just love it,’ he said. ‘It is about recreating the old processes that happened on every farm, like cider making and bread making.
