Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

Three helps to be used:

1. To cut off all the shaggy hairy wool which stands strickling [stiffly] up; by which means they make them seem more snod [sleek], and of a better staple [fibre]. This the shepherds call forcing off them, and cutting off kemp [coarse] hairs.
2. To have a care that they be not too near-stoned, or earmarked, which is a means to make them show better in a market. Others also will defer the gelding of their wether lambs very long, on purpose that their horns may grow the bigger, thinking it a good help to make their wethers show well in a market or fair.
3. To take the sheep about a month or five weeks before the day come, and put them into a good pasture, if he be so provided; and then, when the day comes, to take them out and carry them both fair and full to the market, that they may appear to the buyer good and well-liking sheep.

The best time of year for putting of ewes and lambs is Easter Monday, or some other fairs and markets about this time; ewes and lambs go indifferently well of about Whitsuntide also, but as for the markets for ewes and lambs they prove quicker and dearer accordingly as Holderness men come in, or as other men having had much loss by the rot, are forced to renew.

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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.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

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.

555 words.

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) ·
• Beverley (21) ·
• East Riding of Yorkshire (66) ·
• Easter Monday (4) ·
• 📌Elmswell, East Riding of Yorkshire (19) ·
• Fair (9) ·
• Fasciola hepatica (1) ·
• Fasciolosis (1) ·
• Holderness (14) ·
• Marketplace (8) ·
• Sheep (27) ·
• Whitsuntide (4), the week following Whitsunday, traditionally one of three holiday weeks for medieval serfs ·
• Yorkshire Wolds (23) ·

All tags.

Similar

• 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)
• 1 April 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) weighs his wool for a purchaser from Beverley
• 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)
• 18 November 1641: How Henry Best of Elmswell (Wolds) got his straw into optimal condition for the arrival today of the thatcher
• 5 November 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) lays his wagons up for the winter
• 7 July 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) starts haymaking
• 11 November 1641: At Martinmas, Henry Best starts cutting willow at Elmswell (Driffield) to make farm implements