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.

SHEPHERDS TO BE ENCOUNTERED AT FINDON SHEEP FAIR IN BYGONE DAYS

Copyright Valerie Martin 2010

In July 2010 I heard from David Johnston in Petworth with some interesting sketches.....    "Sussex Shepherds....Paper cuttings, possibly from the WSG - c. 1975 - bit of a scruffy mess, but still interesting.   All best, David".

I thought they were absolutely brilliant and I would tidy them up and put these smocked and bewhiskered shepherds on a webpage along with the text for all to see. 

CLICK TO ENLARGE ALL IMAGES

"Another interesting shepherd was Nelson Coppard, who was born in Poynings in 1863.   He told me that as a shepherd boy he earned 2s. 6d. a week until he was promoted shepherd, when the wages were 12s. a week, plus 1s. 6d. for his dog's keep.   When I knew him he was working at Pangdean Farm near Clayton Mills;  he retired shortly afterwards.   I still have three fossilized sea urchins, which are known as "shepherd's crowns" which he had found in the chalk of the Downs".

"My favourite shepherd was Walter Wooler, the oldest shepherd in East Sussex at that time, born in 1856.   He lived in Pyecombe, not far from the forge where crooks were made.   Walter Wooler had a sweet, gentle face, clean shaven except for a little beard under his chin and sidewhiskers.   After he died, Barclay Wills, the author, brought me one of Mr. Wooler's canister bells, which he had said he would like me to have.   I still have this bell and use it to summon my family to meals.   In his younger days he wore a round frock, or smock, but when I knew him he wore ancient corduroys and an old tweed jacket and carried an enormous shepherd's umbrella.    He carried his dinner in a satchel over his shoulder".

"George Humphrey of Sompting was another wonderful character.   I remember sketching him with a newborn lamb in his arms.   He too had an outsize umbrella between four and five feet across.   One day I met him by Sompting Church and he showed me some ruins behind the building.   "That were done in the war" he said, and as I expressed surprise and said I didn't know there had been any bombs in Sompting, he explained "'Twas when Cromwell brought his men".

"Another fine shepherd was old Mr. Chant of Angmering Village.   (His cottage in the High Street is still called "Chant's Cottage").   I first met him at Findon Sheep Fair in 1934 and made an appointment to visit him in his home, where he awaited me in his best black suit and a hard hat, of the type traditionally worn by the earlier shepherds.   I remember he had a very beautiful open hearth in his parlour which took up almost the whole length of the wall".

"Charles Mitchell, aged 85.   The Pyecombe crookmaker, George Mitchell, was like a very lively small gnome.   When I had completed his portrait he said, "Wal, my wife wouldn't reckernise that!"   A little disappointed, I asked why not, "'Cos she'm bin dead this twenty year!" and he danced up and down, delighted with his little joke.

He was then 90 years old, and had really retired from the smithy, having handed over to his two sons, but he spent three days forging me a beautiful Pyecombe hook for a present - the last one he ever made - which is one of my favourite possessions.   (Incidentally, the Pyecombe crook is always known as a Hook, although those forged at Kingston-by-Lewes and Falmer are called Crooks).

I also have a very lovely and much used crook, probably very old, which was given me recently by Mrs Joy Grant, whose husband was a great collector of Sussex relics of the past.

Forty-one years later, in September last year, I visited Findon Great Fair again.   I missed my old friends, and there were some changes.   In the old days shepherds wore babby jackets, fleecy over-coats and corduroys or gaiters.   Now many wear white overall coats and some of the younger men brightly coloured jerseys and jeans.   At Findon last September there were many shepherds from as far away as the North of England, Scotland and Wales, each carrying his local type of crook.   I saw a fine horn crook from Swaledale and several wide Scottish crooks made from rams horn".

"The ages of these three shepherds sketched at Findon in 1934 totalled 242 years.   It was said that they had attended Findon Great Fair for as long as they cared to remember".

"10.30 a.m.The auctioneer at the Lamb Sale".

"Findon Sheep Fair in 1975".

      "Shepherds in 1975".

Who executed these sketches?    The artist's name was originally unknown but a potential candidate was put forward by John Stepney.     He suggested that an artist named Phoebe Somers executed sketches of shepherds and was in the Worthing area around 1977.   At first there was no guarantee that she executed these and there was a grey area of doubt in my mind.   I always had a feeling that the artist was one of the fairer sex because in the text she says that she uses a sheep bell to summon her family to meals..... and men did not cook meals in those days.   In November 2011, Roger Miles of nearby Angmering emailed to confirm the sketches were in fact by the hand of Phoebe Somers.

JOHN GREVES  ex-Findonian (now in Walton on Thames) writes about North End Farm in Findon......

"One Summer in the late 50's two shepherds left taking their dogs with them ..... after being exposed to some horrific new chemicals which scabbed them all over.

Left an Ag Student and myself to look over something like 600 sheep twice a day .... on foot no dog.

We did have to resort to some pretty unconventional ways of controlling sheep.

Next Summer it was umpteen thousand Turkeys ..... suicidal lot.

Other Summers .... bale sledging .... not many can claim to have passed within 10 foot of every flint on North Farm.

Not sure I would have liked to have done shepherding in the Winter or lambing .... tough job ... especially with big sheep".

 

MORE FROM JOHN GREVES ...."Shepherding was a hard life ...... no clever kit in those days.

Back in the 50's ...... Suffolks and Border Leicesters were the mainstay of the North Farm flock .... big brutes .... considerably heavier than the blokes handling them.

Casting one on its back for foot-rotting, dagging and drenching in a muddy pen was a serious business .... soft rubber boot no protection against the full weight of a cloven foot. Glad they don't bite.

Rams live up to their name .... never to get caught between solid bone and a hard place.

Takes some guts for a 15 kg dog to turn a whole flock of these 100 kg woolly jobs.

Quite striking to see our own domestic collie moving through sheep and cattle down in Dorset .... half cousin to the farmers own dogs".

Rather amazingly, you appear to be the only one with shepherding experience left amongst us, John.     I've always thought it a good job that sheep don't bite!

I can only boast at the age of ten-years, helping to collect sheep from railway trucks at Maidstone East Station...... and driving them back (armed with stout stick) over the footbridge on the River Medway and onwards and upwards to the farm.   

Alas, one was discovered to be missing on arrival at the field.....

"Oh God.... it wasn't my fault, mister".

Trudged back..... found the ewe tied up in brambles in scrubby hedgerow..... quickly extracted by Sid Burnham the shepherd.    (I was sure I saw him once more at the Findon Sheep Fair soon after I had moved here!)

click to enlarge photograph

ANOTHER SHEPHERD......from Neil Rogers-Davis in Angmering...."Valerie....Albert (Bert) Reed was born in Charlton, West Sussex, in 1888 and lived until he was 80. According to his grand-daughter, who still lives in Angmering, he became a shepherd at the age of 14 to the Duke of Richmond. Over the years he had many moves in and around Sussex. Between 1920 and 1923 he lived in Findon, in Gore Cottage, and took part in lambing fairs on Nepcote Green, while working for a Mr Wyatt.

In 1929 he came to live here in Angmering and was employed by Mr Oscar Pyle at Avenals Farm. Mr Pyle had        many prize winning flocks which were driven from Angmering up and over Long Furlong to Findon on fair days.

In July 1939, Bert was approached by fledgling BBC Television to go up to Alexandra Palace and take part in a programme called “Sunday in the Country”. For a man that had not been outside Sussex it was quite an adventure. He went up to London with his working dog, Petal (see photo), and another shepherd, Mr F Brockenhurst. Bert was paid two and a half guineas inclusive of all expenses. In the making of the documentary, Bert told how his dog made his life easier and said that a lot of his success was down to her. He went on to tell of the sheep-shearing methods used in the country and of the Challenge Cup and Silver Medals he was awarded at the Chichester and Findon Sheep Fairs.

In an interview afterwards with the Worthing Herald, his wife commented on his London trip “He said he was only middlin’ excited but I think he enjoyed it enough. After all, he has worked quietly for 35 years, and it was only right that he should have his big day”.    Regards, Neil"

A super story, Neil.

In the summer of 2010 I heard of a Findon shepherd named Michael Saunders.   I did not have many clues to go .....

(1)   His wife was Helen.

(2)   They departed from the village in 1957 and went to run a Sheep Station in New South Wales.   His weekly wages in Australia at the time were said to include half a sheep. 

I wondered if anyone knew what had happened to him.     John Greves who was brought up in Findon, emailed from Walton on Thames where he now lives....

 "Dear Valerie... Mick Saunders... Lived with his Mum and and Dad at Pest House ....

One of the two shepherds affected by new chemicals for treating sheep ... hence his rapid departure to Oz and my job as a temporary shepherd.

His Dad fared no better ... fell through the asbestos roof of the corn dryer .... no "elfins" in those days.

Pest House like so many of the farm workers "tied cottages" around the village at that time .... primitive to say the least.

Good old days not as glamorous as some might think".

The late Roger Moulds of Llandrindod Wells, Powys, added....  "Michael Saunders (Micky), is an ex Worthing High School boy.

He worked for Chris Hunt at North Farm as a shepherd, marking time while he was waiting to go to Australia. He rode a water cooled LE Velocette moyor cycle and lived in digs in Worthing somewhere.

I knew him fairly well because we were both in the Worthing Crusaders bible class.

I lost contact with him when I went in the Navy. I knew he had gone to Australia but know no more than that.

He was a nice, quiet, thoughtful chap and I feel lucky to have known him for a while".

Australia is rather a big place, I will have a job to locate him now, Roger.    But stranger things have happened.

Roger added..."I forgot to say that I think he went away in about 1957. I don't think he ever lived at Pest House because Albert Luther and his family were living there then. Roger".
 

DAVID JOHNSTON of Petworth has sent me some more pictures depicting the Sheep Fair c. 1984 (that's as close as I can get the date)....

Continue if you would like to read Tom Rusbridge's Nepcote.
 

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