THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE— www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FINDON SHEEP FAIR 2003

One man and his dog.  A peep into the past..... a shepherd and his dog look down from West Hill to Rogers Farm, and Findon.

Sheep making their way up Bost Hill with Findon below and Chanctonbury Ring in the background.

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003.

Part published in the Findon News in September 2003

The Findon Sheep Fair and Village Festival

Unfortunately, there were no sheep auctioned in 2003 following the foot and mouth outbreak episode).

The view across Nepcote Green in Findon on Sheep Fair day is now quite different to that in olden times.  There are no dogs to be seen working the sheep — and the convent to the north west of the Green is long gone and the scene is replaced with the red roofs of large houses peeping over the trees.

My photograph shows the fair about to make camp on Nepcote Green in readiness for the Sheep Fair.   When walking by the fair vehicles on Sheep Fair Day, do give them a second glance.   You will see the lorries are of Second World War vintage.   The Matador vehicle is 1940.

Did you think that a lady named Mary Hughes (who believed she was the original little girl in the nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb") most likely visited the Findon Sheep Fair?  

The following are the facts that have been handed down and you can choose whether you consider the story is authentic.  

The poet Sara Hale penned the rhyme “Mary Had A Little Lamb” in 1848 while she was staying at a sheep farm in the Vale of Llangollen where young Mary lived as a child.  

Mary was born on 18^th May 1842 and was one of the 200 children who attended the British School in Brook Street in Llangollen.   One day a lamb she had reared by hand as a pet trotted behind her to school.    The lamb’s name was reputed to be Billy and he frisked around the classroom and caused such mayhem that the frustrated teacher, Miss Coward, made Mary remove the animal and tie poor Billy to a nearby tollgate until school was let out.  

This story amused Sara Hale the poet who observed the young lamb following Mary and it gave her the idea for the little rhyme.   What a delightful tale. 

In 1861, Mary married a mining engineer named John Hughes from Cefn Mawr and went on to have eleven children of her own.

In later years she made nearby Worthing her home.  I think that coming from farming stock in Wales, she most certainly would have been interested in paying a visit a couple of miles north to Findon's Sheep Fair don't you? 

Mary died on 9^th December 1931 at the ripe old age of eighty-nine and is buried not far from Findon — at Broadwater, in the Victorian Cemetery… with a lamb cut in relief in her headstone.   Confirmation surely that she thought she was the Mary featured in the poem.

The Sheep Fair was traditionally held on Nepcote Green on 14th September each year, but by 1959 it was decided that the annual event be transferred to the second Saturday of each September.

There was a time when there were two auctions of sheep on Nepcote Green each year.  The other being a Lamb Fair, which was discontinued in 1971 because of lack of support.

Many can recall the days when flocks of sheep were driven to the Sheep Fair along the tracks and lanes and when householders had to make sure their garden gates were firmly closed.  The shepherds and drovers set off extremely early in the morning (or even on the day before and slept with their sheep under the hedgerows).  They walked many miles with their sheep and after the auction made the trek home very late in the evening.

When the railways came to our area, trains were used to transport all but the most local flocks.  Sheep were sent to Findon from many other parts of the country and arrived at the nearest railway station at Steyning and were driven on foot over the Downs to the Fair.

It is said that entering the Gun Inn on Sheep Fair night in those days was an occasion to be remembered.  More fights were started in the bar than in the boxing booth at the Fair.  The shepherds usually caused the trouble after downing too many beers.  The arguments were often started over the merits of the various dogs sitting with their masters — and the subject of shepherding techniques.

Refreshment has always been available at the Findon Sheep Fair.  There was a genuine catastrophe a few years ago when the bar did not turn up at the event.   The Gun Inn then proceeded to do a very good trade that year.  

While on the subject of the Gun Inn, I would like to mention "Titch" — a local gentleman performer who entertained the audience in the bar on Sheep Fair night with his knack of juggling with bones.   These he clapped together in rhythm.  Titch Hinton and his wife, Selena, are documented as living in the west side of the Wattle House on Nepcote Green in 1914 — and so it can be guessed that this must have been the era that he was entertaining everyone with his bone juggling at the inn.  

At the end of June 2003 I was gratified to receive the following e-mail —

On Sheep Fair day I walked up Nepcote with Suzie and Katie on a lovely autumn day with no one around...... where was everyone?     I soon met up with Ian Ticehurst (who told me that he would not be standing as Chairman of the Sheep Fair Committee in the future); Ian Short carving his ducks:  Bob Fell from Ashurst with his memorabilia in the Wattle House; Pam and John Stepney ...... and Uncle Tom Cobbly and all.   Here I am with the late John Pelling and Malcolm....

All the fun of the fair....

One man and his dogs?   No, it's John with Suzie and Katie and the token of sheep on the Green.   Twenty lambs from "a local farm" ..... apparently not from the Cissbury Estate in Nepcote.

The twenty lambs didn't appreciate being on the Green on display and looked a bit miserable.....

A letter spied in the West Sussex Gazette of Sheep Fair week:

HE DIDN'T WIN.... but he was the smallest dog in the Findon Dog Show in the afternoon on Sheep Fair Day so I thought him worth a mention. 

WE SAY GOODBYE TO ROBERT HARRIS AND HIS FAIR UNTIL NEXT YEAR........what a day!    What lovely weather we were blessed with.

Continue if you would like to know exactly why there were no flocks auctioned at the 2003 Findon Sheep Fair.  Click on Sheep Are Off the Menu.

This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.