Lambing the 19th-century way
Spring time in Great Rollright
One of the greatest joys of spring is seeing lambs skipping in the fields. For shepherds, though, the lambing season is one of the busiest, most intensive times of the year when they are on call for their ewes around the clock. Modern day sheep farmers have the support of antibiotics, scanning technology and veterinary services. They can also often rely on a quad bike to reach the flock at speed and battery-powered torches at night. In shepherd Richard Widdows’ time the toolbox was more basic.
Victorian lambing practices
In the 1901 classic book, Pure Bred Flocks: their Formation and Management, Shrewsbury livestock agent and auctioneer, Alfred Mansell, describes best practice for shepherds.
Mansell emphasises that the health of lambs is determined by the care of the ewes in the previous months: ‘Much of the bad or so-called good luck is usually traceable to the treatment the ewes have received in the pregnancy period’. He warns that a high mortality rate among ewes and lambs is caused by an excess of turnips. He recommends avoiding turnips at all costs and supplementing the ewes’ diet with trough food about six weeks before lambing – linseed seed cake or whole oats.
To avoid overcrowding in the lambing pens, he also advises marking the sheep on the right or left hip with different coloured paint according to their lambing period. This is a practice that continues today and can be seen in the lambing sheds at Cotswolds Farm Park.
The first ewes to lamb are placed in a small field near the lambing fold. He describes how to set up a lambing fold: ‘preferably in a field on a naturally dry and healthy spot as much sheltered as possible, which should consist of an enclosure of hurdles, with pens on two or more sides of the same, well stuffed with straw, and thatched or covered with hedge brushing, or any other rubbish easy to hand. Arrange the fold so as to be open to the South, and protect as much as possible against North and East winds.’
‘As a general rule it is better not to interfere too soon. The experienced shepherd will know when to assist nature.’ Today, the preference is also to leave ewes to get on with it, when experienced, and if the lamb has the perfect presentation: with the head and legs forwards, allowing a streamlined delivery. It is, however, necessary to intercede when the lamb is delivered breech – with the head facing backwards and legs tucked under – or in another awkward position. Twins or triplets can also present problems, if the lambs are born at the same time. In this situation, one of the lambs must be pushed backwards and the ewe be assisted with delivery.
Mansell is scrupulous in his guidance of the shepherd. He advises them to use ‘carbolized oil on hands and oil before operating’ and washing with carbolic soap after each operation; ‘in bad cases, and when a ewe has been assisted with decomposing lambs, the carbolic oil should be poured into the vagina by raising the hind legs of the ewe and allowing it to flow in’. When dealing with contagion, he advises ‘to never go from a bad case to a healthy ewe’, strongly recommending disinfecting clothes, removing any surroundings, such as food or litter to be burnt. Widdows and his employer, tenant farmer William Fletcher, may not have had the resources to be quite so meticulous.
Notably, Mansell makes no mention of iodine in the book. Today, iodine is routinely used to prevent infection: the remains of the lambs’ umbilical cord or navel being dipped in it. Although iodine was invented by chemist Bernard Courtois in 1811, it only began to be widely used as an antiseptic in medical and surgical practices in the early 20th century.
Mansell advises shelter being provided for a sick or weak lamb in ‘a barrel with a hinged lid, with some nice dry hay in it’, which is ‘much more effective than placing it in a warm room, or near a fire’.
In his book, Mansell captures other breeders’ recommendations for sheep management. The breeders often vary in their approaches. For instance, in their treatment of motherless lambs or lambs from multiple births, where the mother cannot feed them: one breeder regards them as ‘not being worth the trouble’ and gives them away, while another rears them on the bottle on cow’s milk. The most popular solution was to put them with another ewe to be fostered, whether as a twin to an existing lamb or to one who has lost their own lamb.
Mansell advises getting the ewes and their lambs out from the fold as soon as possible to pastures as they ‘will not stand confinement’. This should then be shortly followed up by the tagging of lambs and castration of tups.
Lambing of Oxford Down sheep
Ultimately how a sheep lambs is dependent on the breed.
Though I haven’t come across a record of the breed of sheep that Widdows tended for farmer William Fletcher, it is very likely they were Cotswolds in the 1830s when he first started as an agricultural labourer on the farm. By the time Widdows had become a fulltime shepherd for Fletcher in the 1860s, farmers in the area had shifted towards breeding the Oxford Down. The breed ‘began in the 1830s from crossbreeding Southdown and Hampshire Down ewes with Cotswold rams. Many of the early flocks were based around Witney hence the name Oxford Down.’ A large, well-built sheep with a dark face and legs, they proved popular for their hardiness, good wool covering and meat. At the end of the century, Great Rollright landowner, Alexander Hall, is recorded as having a ‘splendid flock’ of Oxford Down. In December 1873, farmer Richard Berry took second prize for his Cotswolds ram at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, as reported in the Field. There were several registered Oxford Down sheep breeders in the Chipping Norton area by the end of the 19th century, including WA Treweeke of Ryne Hill, Kingham, featured in the breeders Q&A section of Mansell’s book.
The Oxford Down, despite its size, is straightforward to lamb. The breed ‘produces high quality, fast-growing lambs that are hardy and vigorous at birth’ and the ewe is ‘found to be healthy, easily managed, docile and with good mothering ability’.
The role of the shepherd in lambing
The success of a lambing season could be highly dependent on the weather. The Oxfordshire Weekly News ran lambing reports early in the year providing updates on conditions across the country. For instance, in January 1870, the ‘inclement weather, snow, rains, and hurricanes’ are described as having ‘disastrous effects’ with a Down flock in North Hants, having 80 lambs born dead.
Year-on-year, however, it was the shepherd’s attentiveness that determined the health of the lambs. Mansell describes the shepherd’s ideal disposition: ‘He ought to be a careful, patient, kind, and cautious man. His care must be unceasing, his watchfulness incessant, and his industry in providing every requisite of food, shelter, and individual conveniences in each case must be unlimited.’
For Kingham breeder WA Treweeke, monetary incentives were key as he tells Mansell: ‘My shepherd gets 6d per lamb over number of lambs to every ewe put to the ram. I find this plan the best. I have tried one or two others. This makes him very careful of the weak lambs.’ For Widdows’ benefit, one can only hope that farmer William Fletcher followed this school of thought.
With thanks to Alan Hambley of the Oxford Down Sheep Breeders' Association, who not only supplied the photos, but also generously shared his knowledge and directed me to Mansell’s book.