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Geese
Agriculture in the Bradford Hundred, Wiltshire
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Geese in the yard of Barton Farm, Bradford on Avon
Geese were probably, like chickens, present in most farmyards especially in the wet clay lands of the south and east. They were kept for their large eggs and for the table.
Broughton Gifford had a speciality in raising geese on a large scale, to the extent that the parish was known as “Ganderland” and the residents as “Broughton ganders”.
Some walls on the periphery of Broughton Gifford Common were provided with small gateways that have been said to have been for geese returning to a house from the Common. There are no geese today and they are blocked