Yew Tree Farm

Yew Tree Farm is the neglected farm where Sunday Small takes work after leaving the Spooners’ home. Its weeds and dirty windows make her arrival feel uncertain, and the short period she spends there is marked by a lack of freedom and the knowledge that she will soon move on. The farm serves as an uneasy interval in her journey toward Treetops Manor, not as a secure home.

Arrival and Setting

Sunday reaches the farm in a trap driven by Mickey. As the farmhouse comes into view, Mickey remarks on its run-down appearance; the yard is dotted with weeds, and Sunday notices the dirty windows. She bites her lip, wondering what she has got herself into, before Mickey helps her down and carries her bags to the back door.

Sunday explains that the farmer’s wife has been ill and that the household needs help. She does not mention what she has heard: the Barnes family had hired and dismissed three girls in as many months. She is not looking forward to the job, but understands it to be her only available option at the time.

Work and Conditions

By early February, Sunday has worked at the farm for more than a month. She asks the woman of the household for a Sunday afternoon off so she can visit Cissie. The woman is surprised that Sunday is asking before settling in, but Sunday stands her ground: she says that even servants are entitled to free time and reminds her employer that the agreement made with her husband included every Sunday afternoon off.

Sunday acknowledges that there had been much to do when she first arrived, but insists that she has worked hard and has not yet had time to herself. The exchange shows the gap between the terms she understood when accepting the position and the freedom she has actually been given. At the farm, she has to assert her agreed entitlement rather than assume it will be respected.

A Temporary Stop

The farm follows Sunday’s comparatively happy period in the Spooner household. Her departure from that familiar home is painful: she embraces Mrs Spooner and Nell, then waves as Mickey drives her away. As the trap climbs Bucks Hill, she recognizes that there is no going back. The bleak appearance of Yew Tree Farm gives this transition a concrete setting, while her reluctance to work there makes clear that the move is a necessity rather than a chosen advance.

The position does not last. Sunday tells Tommy Branning that she has a new position at Treetops Manor and will not remain at the farm much longer. She explains that she left the Spooners’ because Albert Pinnegar’s knowledge of her whereabouts threatened the peace of those around her. She also confides her suspicion that he may have had something to do with Daisy Branning’s death. The farm is therefore a stop in a chain of moves shaped by danger, work, and the search for a safer place, rather than a settled destination.

Narrative Significance

Yew Tree Farm’s significance lies in the contrast between the promise of employment and the insecurity of Sunday’s circumstances. The neglected yard and house signal a difficult arrival; the dispute over Sunday time shows that even a stated employment agreement may need to be defended. Her onward move to Treetops Manor confirms the farm’s temporary place in her story: it offers work, but not the durable security or belonging she is seeking.