THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — these Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and contain scenes from her home village of Findon,
West Sussex, U.K.    Everyday stories about real people.

FINDON SHEEP FAIR 2005

Copyright Valerie Martin 2005

The Harris Fun Fair has been an integral part of our Findon Sheep Fair for more than a hundred years.

The 2005 event was no exception despite the death in August of the familiar figure of Hildegarde Harris, aged 83, on 19th August 2005.  She was the mother of the Harris brothers running the fair and had been involved in the fair all her life and remembered friends who were past occupants of the Wattle House on the Green.

Her coffin left the fairground on Nepcote Green on the morning of Thursday 8th September 2005 and the funeral procession passed through the village.

It is said that between 300 - 400 attended the wake afterwards in a marquee on the Green.

An early morning start... on Saturday 10th September 2005.....

Suzie and Katie found a handful of sheep in a pen...... (I like the horns)....

.....and I found Bob Fell and John Pelling for a chat....

 Bob and John are two of the few people who remember the auctions of huge flocks years ago.  They were a fantastic spectacle but now the fair has unfortunately been reduced to just stalls and displays.   

I know for a fact that lots of visitors thought the birds of prey were the best thing at the Findon Sheep Fair.   There was rather a magnificent Siberian Eagle Owl with brilliant orange eyes.... he kept hissing when I saw him.  

Many voiced that they felt sorry for the sheep on the lorry on display for everyone's entertainment.   New Zealander, Stuart Barnes of The Sheep Show, entertained the crowds with a sheep shearing display and a talk about the different breeds.    He says he has already plans to attend next year's Sheep Fair.

I missed seeing the Morris dancers myself but I am told they were good as well.   

Some thought the stalls were a bit of a wash out and I know that one stallholder did not sell a thing but overall there seemed to be a good atmosphere.

Since the beginning of history men have walked the Findon downland with their grazing sheep...... or at least for thousands of years.  These men were the patient Findon shepherds.  

Right up until the 1920s the shepherds at the Sheep Fair in the village counted their charges in a language that was all their own.  The flock when being brought for counting were made to run in pairs between two hurdles.   Thus, when "den" was chanted, a score (23) of sheep would have passed through.   The attending shepherd then made a notch in his stick.   Simple wasn't it.

I do not know for certain where the numerals came from but it is thought that they could go back to an era before the Celts came to live on the Downs.   If this is so, the counting words must have been passed down by Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norman and medieval men to the modern shepherds.   The words go something like this.... one-e-rum, two-e-rum, cock-e-rum, shu-e-rum, sith-e-rum, sath-e-rum, winebarrel, wagtail, tarrydiddle, den.   The words vary slightly over the centuries and according to the area.

Shepherds' crowns  are supposed to give protection in a thunderstorm, but what is a shepherds' crown?  For us simple folk, I will explain.  

Shepherds' crowns is the name given to fossil sea urchins which are millions of years old.   They are reputed to represent the crown of a bishop (mitre).   These sea urchins abounded in the Cretaceous Period and the chalk of the Findon Downs was at one time full of fossil crowns.  They were dome shaped and had a little round spot on their top, from which the spines of the sea urchin ran down the sides.  

Right up until the cultivation of the Findon Downs during the Second World War, I understand that sea urchins could be discovered around rabbit burrows.   Shepherds carried one of these special stones in their pockets and when their was thunder and lightning on the downland, they clutched the crown tightly in their fist for protection.  It seemed to work as not many over the centuries have been struck by lightning so credit may be given to the shepherds' crowns ... or something. 

Shepherds often spent every day of the week up on the Findon hillsides and during lambing they sleep on the downs as well, sleeping in little tin huts on wheels that looked for all the world like lonely sentry boxes on the hillside.

Alas, no longer are shepherds on the Findon Downs with their faithful dogs.   If you are lucky enough to come across any sheep, they are only inspected by their owners from a quad bike or the the warmth of a truck as the modern "shepherd" drives by.  The centuries old way of life of the Findon shepherd has alas now totally disappeared.

Continue if you would like to read about the  Fair Disaster later in 2005.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.