Yorkshire Almanac 2026

Unedited excerpt

If an excerpt is used in the book, it will be shorter, edited and, where applicable, translated.

FOR SELLINGE OF SHEEPE

The best way to make sheepe goe of in a markett is to endeavour, by all meanes possible, to make them shewe well; to effeckt which, three helpes to bee used.

1. To cutt of all the shaggie hairy woll which standeth stricklinge up; by which meanes they make them seeme more snodde, and of a better stapple; this the shepheardes call forcinge of them, and cuttinge of kempe-haires.

2. To have a care that they bee not too neare-stoned, or earemarked; which is a meanes to make them shewe better in a markett. Others allsoe will deferre the geldinge of their weather lambes very longe, on purpose that their hornes may growe the bigger, thinkinge it a goode helpe to make their weathers shewe well in a markett or faire.

3. To take the sheepe (which hee intendeth to sell) aboute a moneth or five weekes before the day come, and putt them into a goode pasture, if hee bee soe provided; and then, when the day cometh, to take them out and carry them both faire and full to the markett, that they may appeare to the buyer goode and well likinge sheepe.

The best time of yeare for puttinge of ewes and lambes is Easter Munday, or some other faires and marketts aboute this time; ewes and lambes goe indifferently well of aboute Whitsuntide alsoe, but as for the marketts for ewes and lambes they prove quicker and dearer accordingly as Holdernesse men come in, or as other men havinge had much losse by the rotte, are forced to renewe: as for their prises they vary, and are thereafter as the sheepe are in goodnesse: some perhapps for 7s., 8s., or 9s. a couple; others againe about 6l., or twenty nobles a score. A good gimmer shearinge goinge geld, will (about Whitsuntide) give as much as an ordinary ewe with a lambe att her heeles. The onely time for puttinge of fatte weathers is aboute Easter and Crosse days, i. e. against Beverley faire, att which time fatte sheepe are very rare and hard to come by, and aboute Whitsuntide alsoe they goe well of; but betwixt Midsummer and Lammas every one will have a fatte sheepe to sell. Whearefore the best way for feedinge of such weathers is to take them aboute Martlemasse, or soone after, when they come first hoame to be fothered, and putt them into some lowe and springy close, and there to keepe them, with good and constant fotheringe, duringe the time of frost and snowe; and then as soone as fotheringe time is past, (which, if the weather breake, will bee aboute the 10th of March,) yow are to remoove them to some fresh pasture wheare there is a goode timely springe appearinge on the grownd, and neaver to keepe them on a place that is too much fulled; and, by this meanes, may yow have them in very goode plight against Easter: yow are not to offer to feede a weather till hee bee three or fower sheare, for a younge sheepe will neaver feede kindely; and, besides, to sell them before they bee att their full growth, yow shall finde losse on all sides, but noe way profitt by soe doinge.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Best, Henry (approx. 1592-1645) (16) W/G ·
• Beverley (22) W/G ·
• East Riding of Yorkshire (67) W/G ·
• Easter Monday (4) W/G ·
• 📌Elmswell, East Riding of Yorkshire (19) W/G ·
• Fair (9) W/G ·
• Fasciola hepatica (1) W/G ·
• Fasciolosis (1) W/G ·
• Holderness (16) W/G ·
• Marketplace (8) W/G ·
• Sheep (28) W/G ·
• Whitsuntide (4), the week following Whitsunday, traditionally one of three holiday weeks for medieval serfs W/G ·
• Yorkshire Wolds (23) W/G ·

All tags.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Similar

1 April 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) weighs his wool for a purchaser from Beverley

20 February 1582: Part of the household inventory made on the death of farmer Richard Best of Elmswell, including his homebrew kit

4 November 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) boils tar and pitch to mark his sheep

22 November 1641: Snow falls at Elmswell (Driffield), and sheep farmers jostle for low ground and feed

9 May 1641: Sheepwashing preparatory to shearing at Elmswell (Driffield)

11 May 1641: William Simpson of Little Driffield takes a break from threshing to shear Henry Best’s sheep at Elmswell

6 June 1641: Under a waning gibbous moon, armed with a penknife and sticky-willy unguent, a shepherd castrates Henry Best’s lambs at Elmswell (Driffield)

18 November 1641: How Henry Best of Elmswell (Wolds) got his straw into optimal condition for the arrival today of the thatcher

16 September 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) begins to harvest peas

3 May 1641: On the day of the discovery of the True Cross, Driffield folk start moving their livestock out of town to high summer pasture, endangering crops

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Did local people comment on the coincidence between this transhumance of sheep (amongst others) and the transport of the Lamb of God to Golgotha (a hill in Christian tradition), or to paradise between his crucifixion and resurrection (Luke 23:42-43)? “Wold” turns up again and again in this connection, here in a late 13th century passion poem, regarding the temptation of Christ:

Þe holy gost hyne ledde. vp in-to þe wolde.
For to beon yuonded. of sathanas þen olde.
Þer he wes fourty dawes. al wiþ-vte mete
(Morris 1872)

More medieval wold magic:

This othur nyght soo cold
Hereby apon a wolde
Scheppardis wachyng there fold,
In the nyght soo far
To them aperid a star.
(Anon 1902)

Transhumance in the Yorkshire Dales

My fleeting impression is that longer-distance transhumance (still short of the great Spanish migrations) was conducted before the Dissolution by the great religious orders. Here (via John McDonnel (McDonnel 1988)) in 1598 the herder Richard Knowles (80) recalls moving flocks between Fountains Abbey and Fountains Fell (Malham) before the Dissolution 60 years previously:

Richard Knowles of Wessitt Houses in the parish of Kirkby Malloughdale, aged 80, confirmed from knowledge ever since he could remember the sheep, cattle [kyne], mares, and nags of Fornah Gill House did pasture in common together with the goods of the Abbey before and at the dissolution thereof of his sight, who served one of the Abbey’s herds seven years before the dissolution and at the very time thereof, and helped to fetch the Abbey’s goods at Fountains Abbey yearly about St. Ellen Day [May 21] to Fornah Gill and helped also to drive them back again to Fountains Abbey about Michaelmas [September 29] yearly (Purvis 1949).

Ra. Buck’s testimony re the lack of security before the Dissolution is remarkable:

Being born very near to the same grounds and dwelling there the same time, and so knew the premises to be true and did know the herders that kept the same grounds and goods therein for the Abbey, and hath seen the herders milk the Abbey’s kyne in the same ground, lying there swords and bucklers besides them whilst they were milking. (op. cit.)

Would someone like to reconstruct Richard Knowles’ route? Pateley Bridge, but then? I can’t locate “Wessitt” Houses, but Fornah Gill barn (at least) is 54.121813,-2.236811.

Also, can someone summarise the plant & animal biology behind the dates?

Did transhumance here and/or in general cease with the Dissolution?

Kyne -> cattle, though elsewhere kyne and other cattle suggests cows.

St Helen/Ellen/Helena’ Mass: transhumance day

St. Ellen is St. Helen, popular in the north (e.g. the holy wells). St Helen’s Mass, the day on which transhumance tended to being, was the commemoration on May 3rd of the Invention of the Holy Cross, the True Cross having been found by St Helena on her travels – see e.g. here and here. I previously wrongly thought her feast was May 21st:

Feeling stupid – St Ellen? (Transhumance in the Pennines between Kirkby Malhamdale & Fountains Abbey) pic.twitter.com/8PQQnkXuL3

— Singing Organ-Grinder (@elorganillero) May 10, 2023

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