Yorkshire Almanac Sheepwashing preparatory to shearing at Elmswell (Driffield)

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

Henry Best. 1857. Rural Economy in Yorkshire, in 1641. Ed. Charles Best Robinson. Durham: Surtees Society. Get it:

Unedited excerpt

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

Wee washed our fatte sheepe this 9th of May in the howse close, a little beneath the high banke; they weare in number 32, and our washers weare our foreman and another of our own fellowes; wee had but just sixe barres which did very well hold the aforesayd 32 sheepe and 13 lambes besides; one of our boyes that wente with the oxeplough threwe them in; the water was of a very good depth and wee founde it a farre better way then damminge of water, for nowe the scudde and scumme passed away, and the dyke was as cleare and fresh att the last as att the first; whearefore in my opinion this is a farre better way, viz; to wash sheepe in such a place wheare the water is deepe enough of it selfe, without any demminge; for besides the labour of settinge downe and takinge up, the water is in dainger of carryinge away the bankes soe soone as they lette it goe;

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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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1 April 1641: Tips on bringing ewes and lambs to market in the East Riding today, Easter Monday

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

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

19 August 1641: Henry Best of Elmswell (Driffield) begins to harvest mixed grain, and gleaners wait in the wings

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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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