Zooming in on a photo scanned in good detail, here are a couple of carters at Barnhill in the 1920’s. The Barnhill Tavern is out the picture to the right. The road is Bardykes Road looking north.
Some dating evidence. The whitewashed cottage (Aggie Bains) is different from today , still with part of the gable sticking out in the street in this picture, so the date of the photo is before 1929 when the road widening occurred. Looking at the shadows, this appear to have been taken one late morning. The trees and foliage in the background suggesting between April and October.
In the background you can see “Glenartney” or more commonly known to us all as “The Cottage Hospital”.
The title should be changed,
The cart is a ruck lifter and would very likely have belonged to Barnhill farm. The bed of the lifter tilted approx 30 degrees so the rear edge touched the ground and it was pushed back tight against the base of the ruck or hayrick and the ropes seen on the lifter were tied round the ruck. It was wound onto the lifter by two men with the winding gear that can be clearly seen at the front of the bed. The hay would then be taken to the farm hay loft or made in to a large haystack nearby.
Greenhall farm had one of these which was converted to tractor use in the very late forties when the first Ferguson tractor arrived.
Most local farms had them and they came from Dickies of East Kilbride.