At our May meeting we welcomed back Ian Everest for another of his well-researched and well illustrated talks.
He began by pointing out that Hartfield was the birthplace of probably the most famous Sussex agricultural pioneer, John Ellman of Glynde, the major publicist and improver of Southdown sheep, who moved with his family from Hartfield to Place Farm in Glynde at the age of 8. He took over the running of the farm in 1780 on the death of his father. He was a founder member of the Sussex Agricultural Society and Smithfield Society. (Later we discovered that John Ellman was actually born at Chartners Farm in Butcherfield Lane)
Ian’s own interest in sheep dates back to his childhood, when he worked on family farms and assisted with lambing before a career working for the Ministry of Agriculture and a commercial feed company
One of the earliest recorded Sussex shepherds was St Cuthman, who was born about 681, probably at Chidham, near Bosham, about 25 miles from Steyning,. Originally a shepherd, he had to care for his paralysed mother after his father’s death, and built a one-wheeled cart (with a rope from the handles over his shoulders taking part of the weight) in which he moved her around with him. He decided that when that rope broke he would accept it as a sign from God to stop at that place and build a church. The rope broke at the place now called Steyning. After building a hut to accommodate his mother and himself, he began work on the church (now St Andrew & St Cuthman, Steyning, which in the 20th century instituted a Cuthman chapel in his honour), with help from the locals. The church was eventually completed in 857. Cuthman was venerated as a saint in the Steyning area before the Norman Conquest.
Ian’s talk was illustrated by many wonderful old postcards, some dating back to the late 1800s, many showing shepherds of the South Downs wearing the “chumney ” and smock. The former was a soft felt hat with a moderately broad brim. The smock was a garment of which the shepherd was particularly proud. It was made of unbleached linen and was almost weatherproof. That worn during the time of farm work was of blue or grey material, but a white smock was worn on Sundays and holidays, and was ornamented with honeycomb work at the shoulders.
Ian told us that a shepherd used to be buried with a piece of wool on his chest so that his Maker would know he had been a shepherd and would understand why he hadn’t always been at church on Sunday.
At the Lewes sheep market as many as 40,000 sheep were traded from as far away as Essex, and at one time more money could be made from wool than from anything else.
The obituary columns have often commemorated “The last of the old-time shepherds”, but the one who probably deserved that title was Stephen Blackmore, ” Blackamoor,” as his brother-shepherds called him. He had only one arm, having lost the other when a boy through an accident with a chaff-cutter. Starting as a messenger boy for the Earl of Chichester, he eventually became a shepherd on Beachy Head, where the ruined remains of his cottage can still be seen.
A shepherd from Ditchling was once taken to London to watch the Lord Mayor’s show; a few days later the local vicar saw him and commented that it must have been the most wonderful spectacle he’d ever seen. “No ” he replied, “the most wonderful thing is to watch the sun rising over the Downs”
