SHEPHERDS' MEETS
Before the era of the telephone and motorised transport, the business of returning stray sheep to their owners was communally organised.
Each fell area had their own shepherds' meets which were held twice a year - in July for clipping time and in November for tupping time. Stray sheep were gathered together to be identified and claimed by their rightful owners and the meets were also occasions for much socialising.
Shepherds’ Meets still go on today and mostly take the form of a traditional agricultural show or social occasion. Their function of returning stray sheep is much reduced but still occurs, for example, stray sheep are advertised for two weeks in the local paper before Stoneside Meet and, if not claimed, are sold to cover expenses.
A list of Shepherd’s Meets is given below:
- Skiddaw Range: 1st Monday in December and 1st Monday after 20th July
- Buttermere: Shepherd’s Meeting and Show on 3rd Saturday in October, Shepherd’s Meeting on last Saturday in November.
- Stoneside: 2nd Saturday in November for Meet and Show.
- Walna Scar: Summer meet on the Friday nearest to 21st July. Shepherds’ Meet and show on 1st Saturday in November.
- Troutbeck, Windermere: Meet Thursday nearest 20th November
- Mardale: Meet on the Saturday nearest 20th November
- Dockray and Matterdale: Valley meeting and dinner held on the first Thursday after 22nd November
- Borrowdale: Show on the third Sunday in September at Yew Tree Farm, Rosthwaite.
More information and local contacts are in the Lakeland Shepherd’s Guide 2005 available from the LEADER + Office, The Old Stables, Redhills, Penrith, Cumbria CA11 0DT. Tel: 01768 869533.
AGRICULTURAL SHOWS
Virtually all the local agricultural shows have classes for hill sheep.
The Westmorland County Agricultural Show, Kendal (2nd Thursday in September) usually has good turnouts of the three Cumbrian hill breeds as well as many lowland breeds.
The Eskdale Show on the last Saturday in September is the most important of all the Herdwick Shows, but there are good turnouts of Herdwick sheep particularly at Ennerdale (last Wednesday in August), Loweswater (third Thursday in September) and Borrowdale Shepherds' Meet and Show ( third Sunday in September).
There are classes for Rough Fells at the following shows: Ravenstonedale, Appleby, Brough, Kirkby Lonsdale, Sedbergh, Grayrigg. Greenholme, Cartmel, Hawkshead and Burton.
The best summer shows for Swaledale sheep in the Fells and Dales area are Appleby, Brough, Dufton and Hesket Newmarket. The Mungrisdale Swaledale Sheep Show takes place in mid-May.
The Cumbria Fells and Dales Leader + programme is based at Voluntary Action Cumbria and is part-financed by the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund of the European Union and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. This project is part of a trans-national project with Gévaudan Leader + Programme, Lozère, France.