Sheep

An annual event was going to one of the Scottish markets at St Boswells, Hawick or Peebles to buy lambs.  This meant getting to a railway station early in the morning in order to get to the auction early. Time was needed to see which lambs they wanted to buy, and assess how much they were willing to pay for them.  It meant staying in a hotel or boarding house overnight. 

Lambs having been chosen and bought were sent by rail to Aspatria station and walked to their destination. The lambs were then penned into an area and fed each morning and night on turnips and mashed haver until they were fat and ready to sell again. The farmer used a turnip cutter to slice the turnips into large chips, which fell into a swill and then emptied into long troughs.

Mrs. Warren (Vicars wife) and Margaret Warren feeding a pet lamb
 with a bottle, Edderside 1934.

John Ostle sheep-dipping, Newtown 1980s.

Grading Sheep

During the last war, sheep were taken to various markets in the county to be ‘graded’.  This was to ensure that the population all had a fair share of meat. At the market three appointed people were given the job of establishing the average weight of a batch of lambs.

This was done by feeling along the back of the lamb to see how much meat would be on the carcass when butchered. Three people were employed to do this: one representative from the Ministry of Food, one from the butcher and the third from the farmer.

Grading sheep at Wigton auction in 1940’s. Auctioneer Robert Hope, Representative from the Ministry of Food Tom Ridley, and William Jefferson representing the farmers.   

Each passed an opinion on what the average weight of the lambs might be and eventually agreed the weight. The sheep were duly slaughtered and the meat allocated according to the number of customers the butcher had.

Adapted from 'Plain People'
Holme St Cuthbert History Group, 2004.