Putting The World Right?

I wonder what the topic of the day was with these men gathered at the cross in Guisborough? You wouldn’t or couldn’t stand there today. Owen Rooks suggests: “This is only a suggestion-not a definitive answer! This could be a picture of the hirings, A process by which young able bodied men were engaged as agricultural labourers on yearly contracts. My father left school at the age of 12 in the early 1900’s and became a farm worker living in with his employers at various locations around the area. I remember him telling me how he walked from Skelton to stand at the Market Cross in Guisborough in the hope that someone would “hire” him. I don’t know how often this ritual occurred but it must have been a rather humiliating process. The picture seems to show such a group of young men with a prospective employer standing to the left (holding the stick).

Thanks to Owen Rooks for the update.