The Writing is on the Wall…

A group of engraved stones, apparently arranged in a random manner to look like ‘book ends’ can be found in this Derbyshire Dry Stone wall.  It reads as follows…

” In late May or June

To Wash their Fleeces

The Farmer brought their Sheep

In this Deep Pool

Waters rush to escape

Burbling Bumbling Bleating Sheep “

That and a few other random words complete this token to those days gone bye.

Why here…well the stone wall is a network of walls built to create a Sheep Wash (it does the same as a Car Wash but invented long before the car!) and it is there to do exactly that.  This network of pens are built on either side of a small  river fed from a natural spring in this Limestone dale. In the middle of the pens is a pool of deeper water through which the sheep would have to progress, where on the side, one of the farmers would stand with his crook to push the sheep under the water to ensure all parts got washed.  There was also a time when a chemical was added to the pool to kill off nasty’s but the  trouble was it killed of much else as well so was outlawed.

The network of pens were needed so that whilst the sheep were washed they could be separated into groups , for breeding, market or fattening.  Its construction and location, like others in the County is a tribute to construction skill and very practical theory. and sound enough to stand today even though it may well be overgrown and out of use….

The waters from the Sheep Wash continue on their journey into the River Bradford and Bradford Dale where again signs of Sheep farming can be seen with the sheep trap across the river….

But why is this Artwork here.  Well it was part of the Millennium initiatives to create different and local memories to mark the event.  Here in Bradford Dale it is a series poetic inscription in stone above the waters of the river to its powers both mystic and real.

Tomorrow I will share another and very different aspect to the Dale.

24th September

(C) David Oakes 2015