Category: Scottish Exmoor Links

Agricultural History Exmoor Scottish Exmoor Links sheep Uncategorized

Pasturage of livestock on Exmoor

How much did it cost? The Friends continue to research the Scottish shepherds on Exmoor – how they came to be there and what their impact was.   One of the first known to arrive with a cargo of Scottish sheep was Gerald Spooner who took the lease of Winterhead Farm from John Knight in 1852.  More can be read about Spooner on this link    Gerard Spooner – hoaroak (hoaroakcottage.org)    One of the Scottish shepherds who came with Spooner was William Scott who went on to become John Knight’s Bailiff.  Recently, a research partner of The Friends, based in Scotland, found an interesting newspaper advertisement from 1865 that William Scott is advertising ‘pasturage’ on Exmoor – in other words charging farmers to take their cattle: bullocks, horses, ponies, sheep with and without lambs etc., up on to the Forest of Exmoor for a fee which ranged from 2/6 to £1 per animal.  Edward T MacDermot’s book, ‘A History of the Forest of Exmoor,’ gives an insight into this ancient practice and helps us to understand that the sale of pasturage to local farmers is a method to earn income from Exmoor which has a very long history.  McDermot records some of the charges for pasturage.  For example, in 1655, the charge would be 4d a head for sheep taken onto the Forest for pasture.  Equivalent to £1.73 in modern times.  MacDermot page 202 Knight’s purchase of the Royal Forest of Exmoor was part of an ambitious aim to introduce a modern agricultural reclamation project, but it seems the tried and true method of making the Forest pay – to charge local farmers to pasture their livestock on the moor – was still in place in 1865.  The advert from The Taunton Courier in April 1865 shows that Bailiff William Scott would be charging a fee of 2/6 a head for sheep in 1865.  Equivalent to £7.39 in modern times.  Hoar Oak Cottage began life hundreds of years ago as a one roomed shepherd’s cott used for the shepherd responsible for sheep taken up onto the hills of that part of Exmoor for the summer pasturage. MacDermot Edward T, 1973, A History of the Forest of Exmoor. Image courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive © Currency converter: 1270–2017 (nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Posted by Bette Baldwin
Agricultural History Exmoor EYA 2023 Scottish Exmoor Links sheep Sheep Farming Shepherd Little

Explore Your Archive – December 1st  2023  Hobbies

Did the occupants of Hoar Oak Cottage have hobbies? It’s very hard to imagine them having any time for hobbies.  Easier to imagine that some of the things we may consider nowadays as hobbies were part of their everyday lives – knitting for example or dipping candles or felt making or growing herbs.  However, one thing that is a characteristic of many of the shepherds at Hoar Oak is their huge interest and skill in breeding and training sheepdogs. Certainly, the sheepdog was a part of the sheep farmer’s working life, but it might be said the interest and devotion given to these dogs went beyond simple work.  Perhaps, almost a hobby. The archive is lucky to hold several photographs and digitised copies of certificates and programmes of Exmoor Sheep Dog Trials linked to the Little family and their ‘hobby’ of breeding and trialling sheepdogs.  Below is a photo of William Little of Hoar Oak trialling and the front cover of the programme for the 1976 Exmoor Sheep Dog Trials – please get in touch (info@hoaroakcottage.org) if you’d like scans of the entire programme contents. Thanks to David Little for supporting the Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage and allowing us to make surrogate copies of many of his photos, documents and sheep dog certificates and trial programmes. Dave was a descendant of one of the Scottish shepherds on Exmoor – John Little, and son of William Little who was shepherd at Hoar Oak Cottage in the 1930s.
Posted by Bette Baldwin
#SheepBite Agricultural History Exmoor Scottish Exmoor Links Sheep Farming Uncategorized

#SheepBite

It is said that Eskimos have a hundred words for snow.  Exmoor shepherds may have had as many for sheep.

Some will have been in common use in Scotland and some on Exmoor, others used elsewhere in the country.  It would be intriguing to know, when the Scottish shepherds brought their #SheepBite words with them, whether any of these new terms became adopted by the Exmoor farmers.

Many #SheepBite words can still be heard on the moor today.  If you farm with sheep we’d love to know which ones you still use and what they mean.

Over the coming months we plan to add more and more – why not tell us which ones are your favourites and why you like them?

With thanks to Norah Solesbury for supplying many of the words used by Scottish shepherds.

 

#Husk or Hooze

A troublesome cough in lambs caused by lungworms most commonly during wet autumn months.  Death is caused by anaemia and exhaustion, sometimes after many weeks of illness.  When coughing, the lamb with expel large numbers of the parasites into their pasture where they can live for many months and infecting others grazing there.  Shepherds used a mix of turpentine and milk with variable results.  Husk in older sheep was caused by a different worm, not apparent before butchering.  Now, regular worming of sheep prevents the disease.

#Braxy

Often just referred to as the Sickness, Braxy was once a common disease amongst hill sheep, usually affecting younger animals. It may have been the cause of many deaths during the winter months brought on by them eating frozen grass or root crops.  With few signs of illness before death, the carcass decays more rapidly than is usual; despite this the meat was often eaten without ill effect to human or dog. Nowadays, sheep are vaccinated against it (see #Drench, below)

#Drench

Nothing to do with the shepherds getting wet!  A drench is a liquid medicine given either as a preventative measure or as a cure.

#Drenching Horn (or, nowadays, Gun)

In the days before drenching (dosing) guns were invented, sheep drenches were given via drenching horns made from a sheep’s horn which had been cut lengthways to form a type of shallow spoon.  The drenching gun resembles a large metal syringe with a tube which is inserted far  into the sheep’s mouth.    By this means a prescribed amount of the drench is released down the sheep’s throat.

#Fluke (Liver Fluke)

A parasitic flatworm that completes its life cycle within sheep causing liver damage and in severe cases, sudden death from haemorrhage.  Most commonly found in wetter areas as the host is a minute mud snail and, as a consequence is normally more problematic in especially wet years  – such as those of 1860-61 and 1879-1880 when over three million sheep died nationally.  However, fluke can be transferred to drier pasture by infected animals.  Now treated by drugs; in the past, herbal remedies may have been used with varying degrees of success.  A cautionary note: watercress should not be gathered from fluke infested streams as they can infect humans  when ingested.

#Buist (or Keel or Bust)

Pronounced ‘Bist’: to mark a sheep’s fleece with paint.  One of the oldest forms of sheep identification. This would often be with the farmer’s initials and each farm would have its own colour.  After shearing, of course, the sheep would need to be rebuisted.   The image shows Exmoor Horn sheep belonging to the late Dick French of Brendon Barton, one of the closest farms to Hoar Oak Cottage.  The initials A F were his father’s, the + usually denotes a glebe (or tithe) farm

#Buisting Iron

The marking iron used to apply paint to a fleece, sometimes individual letters, sometimes with the ‘complete’ branding mark; attached to a metal shank.  There would often be a smaller iron for lambs.  Occasionally they would be made from wood as shown in the photo below

#Keel Pot

The pot holding the paint (or paint/tar mix) into which the buisting iron would be dipped.  Often sheep were marked with just a daub of paint using a wooden stick (‘keel’ or ‘paddle’)

#Hogg (or Hogget)

From August/September in the year of birth until the next summer when the fleece is sheared (clipped) off, the sheep is a ‘hogg’ (Scotland) or hogget (parts of England/Wales).  Does Exmoor say hogg or hogget?

#Wethers (or Wedder Hoggs)

Tup (male) lambs which have been castrated and are being fattened for the market.  If kept beyond the stage when they are lambs they become known as ‘wedder hoggs’

#Stell

Stells are open, circular pens – usually made from stone that sheep can wander into freely in bad weather.  Still commonly seen in Scotland, Scottish shepherd  Robert Tait Little brought his knowledge of them to Exmoor.  Click here to find out about the one built at Hoar Oak Cottage

#Lamb

When does a lamb stop being a lamb?  Young sheep born in Spring are known as lambs until their first August when they become #hoggs (or #hoggets)

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Agricultural History Exmoor Heritage History Scottish Exmoor Links sheep Sheep Farming

Exmoor – Land of Goshen?

Exmoor may seem like a forbidding, remote or even extreme environment to our modern minds.  To the Scottish shepherds who travelled south to Exmoor in the 19th century to work for Frederic Winn Knight it would have felt very much like home from home.  Most of them came from similar, or even more, remote rural areas in the Scottish Borders and they were used to wild weather and wild countryside.

But could it be that coming south might seem like coming to the Land of Goshen for these shepherd families?  Frederic Knight seemed to think so. On the 6th of November 1883 he had an article published in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette about Exmoor sheep farming.

He says in the article that although the climate of Exmoor may seem severe to a native of the Devonshire sea-coast the “shepherds from the Scotch borders have frequently remarked, on receiving accounts of snowstorms in their native hills, that on coming to Exmoor they had come into the land of Goshen.”  

He explains how his sheep flocks need no additional feed during the winter months and that “only twice in the last twenty years have I lost sheep in snowstorms and the loss compared with the number of sheep wintered has been infinitesimal, as it was accidental.  No sheep with liver-rot or fluke has ever been known on Exmoor.” 

Although Mr Knight doesn’t make clear precisely what he means by Land of Goshen – nor what the accident was that caused the loss of sheep during winter – it can probably be assumed he was referring to the balmy climate and agricultural benefits of farming in Southern England.  The newspaper article gives a very positive view of sheep farming on Exmoor at the end of the 1800s and should probably be seen as a bit of free media for Mr Knight wishing to put a very positive spin on his agricultural activities on Exmoor.

The Friends researches into the Scottish shepherds at Hoar Oak Cottage and elsewhere on Exmoor don’t necessarily paint a similar picture.  Their lives, for the most part, included highs and lows, good times and bad times.  Some stayed on Exmoor.  Most went back to their homes and families in Scotland.  So was Exmoor their Land of Goshen?  Maybe it was a bit warmer then the Scottish Borders.  Maybe the chance of a job with a cottage was attractive.  Maybe sheep farming in the south was easier than in the north.

We’ll never know.  We can only be sure that Frederic Knight certainly thought it was.  At least according to what he wrote in this newspaper article published over 130 years ago.

 

 

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Heritage Howatson/Hewitson New Zealand Scottish Exmoor Links Uncategorized WW1

Howatsons/Hewitsons of Badgeworthy

As part of the Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage’s researches for other Scottish shepherds on Exmoor   we were contacted by Jill and Don Johnson from New Zealand who had Hewitson/Howetson family links back to Scotland and Exmoor.  They did their own investigations and told us the story shared below. There are several ways of spelling the name and we have come across Hewitson, Howatson, Howetson/Howitson and Hoatson.  They family in New Zealand use the Hewitson version.

William Howeston (sic) is mentioned in Heritage of Exmoor by Roger Burton who records William as the Badgworthy shepherd in and around the late 1870s early 1880s.  The photograph, below, shared by his New Zealand descendants shows a remarkable gentleman with the large bushy beard so often seen on ‘our’ Scottish Exmoor shepherds and wearing a cap with what might be sporting either a Gordon Highlanders badge or a Clan Donald badge.  The Hewitsons are a sept or subgroup of the Clan Donald.

William was born around 1841 (he appears on the 1841 census), at Loch Broom, Rosshire. His wife Martha Bradford, born 1848, came from Wigtownshire.  William and Martha were married in 1872 in Stranraer and by the 1881 census they can be found living at Badgeworthy Cottage near Brendon, North Devon.  Badgeworthy is one of the cottages used by shepherds employed by Frederic Knight and was built to service one of the remotest sheep herdings south of the Doone Valley and north of the River Barle.  It is shown in the photograph below.

 

The birth dates of William and Martha’s children would suggest that they moved down to Exmoor around 1877 between the birth of son Samuel in Scotland in 1876 and the birth of daughter Janet in Brendon, Exmoor in 1878.  It is worth remembering that another Scottish shepherd – William Johnstone – had been at Badgeworthy from 1872 and it may well be the case that, as with so many others of the Scottish shepherds, there was a family link between the Johnstones and the Hewitsons.

William and Martha Hewitson’s  children are:

Martha (b1874) Scotland
Samuel (b1876) Scotland
Janet (b1878) Brendon
Elizabeth (b1880) Brendon
William (b Q3 July-September 1883) Brendon

The New Zealand descendants were able to share Elizabeth’s birth certificate shown below:

The birth was registered on the 19th February 1880 and the Registrar was Philip Taylor. Care must be taken in thinking that the 19th of February, 1880 is close to Elizabeth’s actual birthdate.  The winters on Exmoor were notoriously bad and the Badgeworthy family may well have not been able to get to register little Elizabet’s birth until sometime after the actual birth date.

The photograph below of Badgeworthy Cottage was also provided by the Hewitson descendants in New Zealand – it says Doone Valley “The Shepherds Cott”.   It is remarkably similar to the photo at the beginning of this item and demonstrates just how remote Badgeworthy Cottage is.

The cottage was built on, and out of the stones of, the old medieval village which is recorded on the same site on Ordnance Survey maps and which became famous as the fictious hideout for the highwayman featured in the R.D.Blackmore book Lorna Doone.  The cottage was destroyed in the 1950s as it was used for gunnery practice by an Army Tank Regiment.  Some past residents of Badgeworthy are recorded as saying it was a place full of ghosts and not a comfortable place to live.  Who knows?  William and Martha Hewitson and their children may well have had something to say on the matter!

 

William and Martha and their family moved back to Scotland sometime after William Junior’s  birth and William seems to have been worked as a shepherd to Earl of Lindsay for at least 2 years.  This interesting document, below, is a testimonial written for William Hewitson (spelt Howetson) in September 1886.

It is written by John Flockart who, in the 1881 and 1891 censuses, lived in the Bank House, Kilconquhar, Fife and described himself as Factor and Bank Agent.  As the Lindsay Estates were in Fife it seems likely that Flockhart wrote this ‘to whom it may concern’ testimonial for William Hewitson/Howetson to show to prospective employers after he left the Earl’s employment.

It says:

Commercial Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh Life, 3rd Sept. 1886

This is to certify that William Howatson has been shepherd to the Earl of Lindsay for nearly two years.  He is a good shepherd and thoroughly understanding his work.  He can be safely trusted with the management of stock and is a sober man.   Xxxxxxxxx a total abstinence.  I may mention that he is leaving Lord Lindsay’s employment for no fault but owing to his Lordship having let nearly all his grass land and dispensing with the service of a shepherd. 

This document tells us that by 1886 William Howatson (sic) had been working for 2 years for the Earl of Lindsay but then moved on through ‘no fault of his own’.  The 1891 census records the Howitsons living at Drumain Farm House, Leslie, Fife.

Below is a Family Tree drawn up by Nicky Rowberry, Geneaologist and Research Officer for the Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage.

 

What happened to the Hewitson children?

Janet died on February 9th, 1900.

William and Samuel Hewitson went to New Zealand in 1913.
Martha also went to New Zealand but we don’t know exactly when.
Elizabeth married Hugh Philp in St Andrews and had two children – Martha Bradford Philp and Hugh Philp Junior – and also went to New Zealand after Hugh was killed in WW1.

Here is a photo of Elizabeth, Martha and Bill Hewitson taken in Palmerston, New Zealand.

 

Elizabeth’s husband Hugh Philp joined the army in WW1 and was Private 40767 in the Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) 8th Battalion.  He died, aged 36 on the 9th of April 1917.   He is commemorated in the Arras Memorial, France where 35,000 who died in the Arras sector between April 1916 and August 1918 and who have no known grave. The most conspicuous event during this two year period was the Arras Offensive during April and May 1917 during which Hugh Philp died. The 8th Battalion of the Black Watch was formed in Perth Scotland in August 1914. They trained in Aldershot and were landed at Bolougne in March 1915 as part of the 9th (Scottish) Division.  Below is the memorial for Hugh Philp with a picture of the Arras Memorial.

It records that he is the son of Thomas and Helen Philps, of Boarhills, St Andrews, Fife and the husband of Elizabeth Philp of Palmerston South, Otago, New Zeland.

Poor widowed Elizabeth clearly decided to go and join her brothers and sisters in New Zealand.  Research has shown that Elizabeth, accompanied by Martha (age 7) and Hugh (age 6), sailed from Liverpool, England on 24th March 1920 on board the SS Paparoa.  The ship was bound for Port Chalmers (South Island) via Auckland.  The records show that the ship berthed at Port Chalmers (Dunedin) just over two months later on 28th May 1920.  Elizabeth’s details were found on a  transcription of one page of the Paparoa’s passenger list and a copy of an original typed page of the passenger manifest tells us that Elizabeth, Martha and Hugh were travelling in 3rd Class in Cabin 104.

An image of the SS Paparoa taken a few years later – around 1924/1925 – is given below.

It truly does not look a large ship for a two month journey half way around the world and it would be interesting to learn more about Elizabeth’s trip. Their arrival at Port Chalmers ties in with the address in nearby Palmerston given for Elizabeth on her deceased husband Hugh’s First World War memorial page shown above.

Elizabeth Bradford Hewitson circa 1900
The photo below is of Martha Hewitson with granddaughter Martha Bradford Philp c 1913 – photo possibly taken in Strathmilgo, Fife.  Martha’s daughter Elizabeth and this grandchild Martha went to New Zealand in 1917 after Elizabetha’s husband Hugh Philp was killed in WW1.

And the photo below is of her husband William Hewitson with unknown child. Possibly a slightly older grandchild then in the photo of Martha above?  The wall and seat look similar.

William Hewitson died sometime between 1911 and 1915 as when his wife Martha died, in 1915, she was described as a widow.  Their’s was a life full of interest.  Marriage followed by their Exmoor adventure, 5 children, a return to Scotland, the death of a child and the loss of a son-in-law to WW1 as well as waving farewell to 3 of their children to new lives in New Zealand.  A little snippet shared with us by their descendants would also seem to indicate that their’s was a love story.  The pages below are from a little diary written by Martha over a hundred years ago.

On the second to last page of the book and with a picture of William pasted into the final page is written this poem:

O bonny fair boy

I love you dear

As no else knows

You are in my thoughts

By day by night

Your love with mine combines

Thank you to William and Martha for their wonderful story and to their descendants Bill and Beryl, Don and Jill Johnson in New Zeland, for sharing it with The Friends to help with the search for the Scottish connections to Exmoor.

If you would like to find out more, perhaps have information to share or would like to be put in touch with the New Zealand descendants of William and Martha please get in touch.

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Biggar Crawfordjohn Graham Scottish Exmoor Links Uncategorized

The Graham Family: Scottish Migrants to Exmoor

The Graham Family:  Scottish Migrants to Exmoor

The Friends of Hoar Oak are always pleased to learn more about any of the Scottish shepherd families who came to Exmoor. Recently we were contacted by Donald Graham, a descendant of Thomas and Marion Graham who came to Exmoor from Biggar in Scotland around 1875.  Donald was born and brought up in and around Lynton and Brendon and has strong family links to the Rockford Inn, a favourite with many of The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage.   He now lives and works in Minehead.

The story Donald has to tell, the photographs he has to share and the memories he has provided about Thomas and Marion are a treasure trove of information. It is a story full of interest and adventure as well as fortitude combined with sprinklings of sadness and hardship.  It takes us across the length of Britain, from Scotland to North Devon, involves several sheep farms on Exmoor including Badgworthy and Larkbarrow and ends in South Devon.  The photo below is of Donald Graham on a recent walk out to his ancestors’ farm at Larkbarrow, where only a few walls and features of the old building now remain.  He is holding a photo of Thomas and Marion Graham who left Scotland to come and live in this spot in the 1870s.

According to the family bible (still in Donald’s possession) – Thomas Graham was born on the 8th of July 1851 in Biggar, Lanarkshire.  His mother was Janet Graham, but his father’s name is unknown.  Thomas was christened Thomas Steel Graham and was brought up on his grandparents (John and Janet Steel Graham) sheep farm in Biggar, Lanarkshire with two other siblings.  When, in 1856 his mother Janet died, Thomas continued to be raised by his grandparents whom, it is recorded, he remained very close to.  His grandfather, John Graham was a shepherd and a drover and it is no doubt from him that Thomas learnt his shepherding skills.    Sadly, Grandfather John came to a sticky end: a story which involves a flock of sheep, the House of Muir Sheep Market, whisky drinking and the Haystoune Arms in West Linton and which was reported in the Peebleshire Advertiser and County Newspaper dated 9th April 1864.

It recounts how John was found dead after leaving the pub in his usual good health and saying he was going to Dolphinton.   He had three score sheep with him. The newspaper says “Dr Andrew Bonthorn on arriving found Graham lying on his right side, with his plaid under his head. He pronounced life to be extinct and gave it as his opinion that death had been caused by cold and exposure, after indulging in intoxicating drink, or that the exposure had accelerated some pre-existing disease.”  Heart disease is inherent in the male line of the Grahams and it seems poor John succumbed.

After John’s death his wife, Janet Steel Graham, was left not only to fend for herself but also to continue raising her dead daughter’s children.  She must have indeed been a woman of steel and the fact the Steel name has come down through the family line is testimony to the high regard she was held in, including by her grandson Thomas who carried her memory to Exmoor.

On the 3rd June 1872, at the age of 22, Thomas Graham married Marion Wilson in Biggar. Although, at the moment, we do not know where they lived and worked initially, we do know that their first son, another Thomas Steel Graham, was born in 1874 at Broadlees, Symington just three miles from Biggar. In 1875 a second son, George Wilson Graham was born in Peebles.  It may be that by this time the family had moved away from Biggar or that Marion’s family came from Peebles and she had returned home to have her baby.

The picture of the family below, taken when young George was still a toddler, shows the family in a photographer’s studio-type pose.  There is a romantic backdrop and in the front, and obviously to the children’s delight, there is a little chicken perched on a fence in front of them.  It is a lovely family photo and seems to have been taken in Scotland – perhaps just before they left for Exmoor.

Thomas’ wife Marion has been remembered as a woman who was fiercely proud of her family and of her Scottish roots and family memories tell us that Marion brought this strong pride of home and family with her when she moved to Exmoor.  The family travelled with a few prized personal possessions, their sheepdogs and a flock of Cheviot sheep, leaving by boat from Scotland to travel to Lynmouth in North Devon.  We have yet to find out which port they left from, but we know from elsewhere that it was not in the least unusual for shepherds, their wives and children and the sheep to all travel south on the same ship – ships which were not very large and often overcrowded.  The journey down the west coast of Scotland and England and then up the Bristol Channel to North Devon must have been an uncomfortable and taxing one. On arrival in Lynmouth, passengers and sheep would all be offloaded and the sheep driven up onto Exmoor by the shepherd and his sheep dogs.  A horse and cart would have met the ship and transferred the women and children to their new home.

A photo of one of Marion’s precious possessions transported down to Exmoor still exists.  It is of her “Scotch Dresser” and it is fascinating to imagine the family and their dresser bouncing along in a pony and trap along the lanes from Lynmouth up onto the moor.  Also among their baggage was her most prized possession – an album in which Marion had compiled of photos of Biggar and the family in Scotland.  We learn that she was always willing to show off her album and talk about it to visitors.  It would be wonderful to find out if that album maybe still exists – if you know of it do please get in touch – but for the moment it is possible to share a photo of Marion’s  “Scotch Dresser”.

Thomas Graham had most probably been employed by Frederic Knight to deliver a flock of Scottish sheep to Exmoor and to live and work as the shepherd at Larkbarrow.  The farmstead was a substantial one but it was in a bleak and isolated part of Exmoor – by following this link the reader will be taken to a leaflet describing a walk to Larkbarrow as well as a little of the history of the farmstead.

Although it had begun to fall into slight disrepair by the mid-1800s Larkbarrow was, when the Grahams lived there, a substantial farmstead with extensive outbuildings. It was also, as can be seen in the photo below, in two parts allowing accommodation for extra farm labourers or in some cases another family.  More can be found out about Larkbarrow in Roger Burton’s book The Heritage of Exmoor and the reader is recommended to take a look at that book if more information about Larkbarrow, or indeed any aspect of Exmoor heritage, is wanted.  This lovely old farmhouse is now long gone as it was used by the Army for Tank Gunnery practice and the buildings were, quite literally, blown up.

For the Graham family, Larkbarrow was where their new life on Exmoor started and where their third child, a son called John Graham, was born on the 26th July 1878.  The little boy died just 15 months later of diarrhoea exhaustion – an unpleasant condition but one which was not that unusual a cause of death at that time. On the 3rd October 1880 another daughter, Marion, was born followed by a further child, who was named Janet Steel Graham and born on the 17th June 1882.   Another son, William Graham was born on the 13th November 1883 in Ashkirk, Roxburgh and it seems likely that Marion returned home to have this final baby whilst Thomas stayed behind to work.  It also seems very likely that Marion took some, or perhaps all, of the other children with her as some of them were, in later life, still able to remember being taken to Scotland when their mother had another baby.

By 1887, the Graham family moved from Larkbarrow to another remote and even wilder spot on Exmoor, Badgworthy Farm.   Living at Badgworthy was a rather different kettle of fish for the Graham family. It was a lonely and isolated building.  A simple two-up, two-down cottage with a lean-to (probably for a pig) which had been built in the 1860s by John Bale and John Lethaby.  It is alleged that they used stones from the old ruined cottages known as the Doone Huts – the remains of a ruined medieval village and linked to the great Exmoor tale by RD Blakemore of Lorna Doone.   Badgworthy – sometimes called the Shepherds Cot – was recorded as having a “feel” to it which many occupants did not like.  Another Scottish family, the William Johnstone family, lived and worked there in the 1870s and stayed just a few years before returning to Scotland.

The building was whipped by the wind, it would have been a terrible place in the snow and apparently echoed (to those who could hear such things) with the noises of the men – some might call them the ‘blaggards’ – who had once lived there, supposedly in robber gangs.  Badgworthy is noted as having the highest turnover of occupants during the period when Knight housed his shepherds/farmers there. Although we shall never know exactly why this should be the case it is, nonetheless, remembered as a place that people generally did not seem to have enjoyed living in.

The photos below show it in its setting and help tell the story of Badgworthy. The first photo shows the cottage with smoke pouring horizontally out of the chimney and with the few stone walled enclosures to the back and side of the cottage, where the family would have tried to grow some crops or to protect sheep and perhaps a pony and cow or two.

The second photo was used in a Judges postcard and demonstrates the bleakness of Badgworthy setting. It also shows how oats were grown in the field across the valley and the crop can be seen here, gathered into stooks, waiting to be collected and stored for winter.  The entire plant – straw and oat head – would be fed to the animals.

The next photo is a wonderful, personal memento of the Graham’s time at Badgworthy.  It is of the Graham children and visiting friends out on the moor to the front of the cottage.  How lovely it would be to learn which are the Graham children and who the friends are.

The Graham family’s move from Larkbarrow to Badgworthy was recorded in Head Shepherd Robert Tait Little’s diary for 1888.  Head Shepherd Little was employed by the Knight family and came from Scotland to take up this important post.  He kept detailed and extensive records about the sheep, sheep breeding, quantities of wool and meat sold to market etc. Although the diaries are intended to be primarily stock records they also give tantalising glimpses of which shepherd was at which herding at any particular time between 1870 and 1907.  The image below gives two pages from one of the Little’s diaries covering the years 1885 to 1890 which record exactly that information. These pages are from 1888.

Down at the bottom of the right-hand page it is recorded:

May 20th, George Anderson left Badgeworthy

May 26th, Thomas Graham to Badgeworthy  Shepherd.

This diary entry gives us a precise window when the Grahams left Larkbarrow and moved to their posting at Badgworthy.   It also casts light on one of the intriguing aspects of the Scottish shepherds on Exmoor story, the degree to which the Scottish shepherd families were related to each other or had strong interconnections back in Scotland.    Donald Graham tells us that Thomas Graham who came to Exmoor from Scotland had an Aunt Elizabeth who was married to William Anderson back in Biggar.  And here in Robert Tait Little’s diary we see a shepherd Anderson handing over to Thomas Graham at Badgworthy in 1888.  It may well be the case that “word of mouth”about shepherding jobs on Exmoor meant two branches of the family – the Grahams and the Andersons – both ended up down in North Devon.   Perhaps the Thomas Graham and George Anderson recorded on these diary pages were cousins?

Our knowledge about the family ties between so many of the Scottish shepherd families on Exmoor continues to grow and it would be wonderful to find any descendants of George Anderson as they may hold some clues to this particular little mystery about whether the Andersons and Grahams on Exmoor were indeed related.

Perhaps it was with some relief that the Graham family moved away from Badgworthy.  For the moment, the date of this move is unknown, but it is very likely to have coincided with the period towards the end of the 19th century when the land and cottages on Exmoor had been sold by the Knight family to the Fortescue Estate and were being run by Lord Ebrington, a Fortescue son.  His aim was not to continue employing shepherds but to let the farms and land for shooting etc. and to earn income from them in that way.   The Exmoor Scottish sheep farming experiment was coming to a close and many of the shepherds hired from Scotland lost their jobs, their homes and their livelihoods. For some the loss of livelihood and home was a bitter blow, see for example the story of William Davidson.  For others, with well-established links to the area and their children already married into local families, the desire to return to Scotland must have been lessened and they would, as in the case of the Grahams, look for work elsewhere.

Ultimately, the Graham’s home at Badgworthy suffered the same fate as several other hill farm cottages on Exmoor (including their other home at Larkbarrow) as it was used by the Army for tank gunnery practice and demolished.  The photos below were taken in July 2015 and show the sad remains.

Thomas and Marion Graham moved from Badgeworthy Cottage to Kipscombe Farm in Countisbury to work, it seems most likely, for Sir William Halliday of the Glenthorne Estate.  The 1901 census, however, finds Thomas and Marion at Twitchen Farm in Challacombe so their time at Kipscombe must have been fairly short and confined to 1889/1900.  Family memories suggest they moved to Challacombe because of its thriving Methodist chapel and community.

Thomas Graham had a reputation as a gifted and fiery speaker in the local Methodist Chapel at Brendon.  He had been raised with a strong Christian faith in the Church of Scotland and he is remembered for reading to his children from the old family bible brought from Scotland.  He became a lay preacher and would preach at Brendon and other local Methodist churches on Exmoor.  Methodism was the nearest non-conformist religious style to the Church of Scotland and many, if not all, of the Scottish shepherd families would have attended a Methodist chapel in and around Exmoor.  Thomas Graham is remembered for having a strong Scots accent and his descendants wonder how well this fiery and charismatic Scottish Preacher would have been understood by the natives of the Brendon Valley.

Their daughter Marion Graham was attending the Methodist Chapel at Challacombe even when the family were still living at Kipscombe.  It would have been a long trek to get to chapel meetings and perhaps a blow to her father who was still preaching at the Methodist Chapel in Brendon – but perhaps there is a better explanation that is still to be learnt.   Nonetheless, the attractions of Challacombe eventually tempted the entire family to move there and to take up residence at Twitchen Farm.  The village had a shop, post office, baker and blacksmith as well as a pub (which would not, of course, have been frequented by this staunchly Methodist family) and this would have been the first time since moving to Exmoor that the Graham family would have experienced such conveniences and comforts.

Nonetheless, and as is the way with all families, children grow up, marry and move away.  Janet married Charles Dennis in Barnstaple and went to live where he ran his blacksmith business in Zeal Monachorum, near Crediton.  Daughter Marion married Alfred Madge who was a farmer in Sandford, near Crediton and she too moved south.  Son George Wilson Graham married Hannah Mary Geen and they took over the tenancy of Wilsham Farm, in Countisbury and seemed to have prospered as Wilsham stayed in the Graham family until 1989.

Eventually Thomas and Marion decided to leave Challacombe and moved closer to daughters Janet and Marion.  They took up residence at Rookbeare Farm in Stockleigh English near Crediton where they lived until they passed away, Thomas in 1920 aged 69 and Marion in 1927 aged 81.  The photo below shows Thomas & Marion at Rookbeare Farm.

And this photo below is of their final resting place in Stockleigh English churchyard.

Thomas Graham’s death was reported in the local newspaper (Western Times, Image © Trinity Mirror. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. Image reproduced with kind permission of The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

Donald Graham, who has been the informant of this wonderful story, remembers his grandfather telling him about Thomas and Marion Graham.  He remembered that Thomas Graham was a very tall man with a great bushy beard and strong Scots accent. His Granny Marion, by comparison, was a small woman who was dwarfed by her husband.  Marion had a strong character and was proud of her Scottish background and is also remembered for always greeting her grandchildren with a bag of sweets.

Thomas and Marion Graham’s story is fascinating. They were part of the Scottish migration of shepherds from Scotland to Exmoor and their life took them to Larkbarrow and Badgworthy high up on Exmoor hills; to Kipscombe at Countisbury and to Twitchen Farm at Challacombe and finally to South Devon, where they ended their days still living and working on farms near their children in Crediton.

Their story has survived to be retold today.  A testimony to Marion Graham nee Wilson of Biggar in Lanarkshire, Scotland who came with her husband Thomas Graham to Exmoor in North Devon, determined, so we are told, to remember their Scottish roots and to pass on her pride and passion for those roots to her family.   It seems safe to say she more than succeeded, because without her fierce pride and determination we wouldn’t have their story to share now.

Thank you to Donald Graham for getting in touch and sharing another wonderful story about the Scottish shepherd families on Exmoor.  He is keen to find more relatives or anyone else who may know more of his Graham family either in and around Devon or in and around Biggar in Scotland.  If you would like to learn more from Donald Graham or have something to share please do get in touch

Posted by Bette Baldwin
Biggar Crawfordjohn Exmoor Graham Scottish Exmoor Links

Shepherd Graham of Badgeworthy

Guest Blog from Donald Graham
Donald Graham,  pictured left, is a great great grandson of Thomas and Marion Graham nee Wilson who were one of the Scottish migrant shepherd families to come to Exmoor in the 19th century.  You can read more about the Scottish Shepherds on this link. Thomas and Marion took on the Badgeworthy Herding for John Knight.  Many of their descendants including Donald are still in and around Exmoor, Devon.   Below, Donald gives us an introduction into his interest in researching his Scottish grandparents and an account of his visit to Scotland to research their early lives and his search to find contemporary Graham relatives.

 In July 2017 I fulfilled my long time ambition to visit Scotland, the homeland of my forebear Scottish descendants who came from Biggar and Crawfordjohn in the border area of Upper Clydesdale Lanarkshire.

 I have always taken a keen interest in my Graham family history and during my teenage years remember asking my paternal grandfather who lived with us on the family farm “who were your grandparents who came from Scotland”?

 “I never knew my grandparents much” my grandfather would say. He told me they came from Biggar and grandfather Graham was tall with a big bushy beard and spoke with a gruff, broad Scotch accent. My grandfather couldn’t understand what grandfather Graham was saying half the time, and he and his siblings used to be quite scared of him. Grandmother Graham he remembered in contrast was short in height, quieter natured and wore a Scotch plaid around her shoulders.

 “Oh, I dare say they were kindly enough, but not a big part of our lives” he told me. Later they moved from Exmoor to Stockleigh English, Mid Devon to live near two of their daughters and never much was saw of them after then. And that was the extent of his memory of his Scottish grandparents and all I ever knew of them for many years following. 

My Father had not been born when both his Scottish great grandparents died in the mid 1920’s and he had learnt no more than I had from his Father.

 It wasn’t until 2000 that my desire to find out more about my Scottish ancestry was rekindled. By then I knew my Scotts great great grandparents were buried in Stockleigh English churchyard. I made a visit and found their weather beaten gravestone, the monumental inscription partially covered with lichen and difficult to read. There were flowers on the grave that looked as though they had been recently picked and arranged. Indicating to me the memory of the inhabitants was dear to someone, possibly a family relative. I contacted the Vicar and asked if I could put a research enquiry into the following months church magazine which soon generated a response.

 It was from another same generation grandson as my grandfather. The difference was, he had known his Scottish grandparents well and had a wealth of fascinating information to tell me. His name was Graham Madge the son of Marion Madge nee Graham, a daughter of Thomas and Marion Graham.

 Graham was a retired teacher who had worked in primary schools for many years and had received an MBE for his services to his local community. He had been brought up at Down Farm Nr Stockleigh English with his parents and grandparents. It was a privilege to have known Graham before he passed away in 2002. He was able to tell me the detailed life stories of my great, great grandparents Thomas and Marion Graham. Two second hand memories of his grandfather Graham which he remembered his father telling him about and amused me I will share with you here.

 Thomas Graham had a bit of a habit of stressing important things he was saying with great emphasis and sometimes reinforced special points by prodding his addressee in the chest with two fingers. He did this once when talking to the elderly rector of Stockleigh English. Unfortunately he caught the old boy off balance and he fell over!

 On another occasion he went into a haberdasher’s shop and asked for a ‘pern’ (pronounced  peern with a strong Scots accent). he could not make the shopkeeper understand what he actually wanted. A difficult conversation between the shopkeeper and grandfather Graham pursued with grandfather Graham persisting in trying to make himself understood for several minutes resulting in an inpatient queue of customers waiting to be served. What he actually wanted was a reel of cotton.

 Having been enriched with this wealth of information, hearing their stories and making pilgrimages to the often desolate and remote places they had lived out their lives on Exmoor and later in mid Devon, I knew I had to go to Scotland where their lives began.

 I planned my visit to Scotland well beforehand. I made notes of the places I needed to visit and checked census returns for addresses where my Graham ancestors lived. I also prepared ‘enquiry cards’ to hand out and pin on notice boards asking for information on Graham families and lines they married into living in Biggar and surrounding parishes during the 19th and 20th centuries. My objective was to find leads of enquiry to contemporary relatives in Scotland.

 My first stop was Crawfordjohn on a very wet and foggy Monday morning. I easily found the lovely little chapel which is now the Crawfordjohn Heritage Centre. It so happened the church door was unlocked so I wandered in and met a really lovely local lady who introduced herself as Dee. She explained the church wasn’t open but was happy to let me in to chat and have a look around and dry off! I explained who I was, my interest in coming to Crawfordjohn and the gravestones I was hoping to locate. Dee was fantastic she came out with me to help me locate the gravestones and shown me the name of James Graham on the War memorial.

 From Crawfordjohn I made my way to Biggar where I stayed for two days. I had a lot to do, so bags unpacked at the very comfortable and highly recommended Kirkstyle Hotel I was off the Biggar Kirk churchyard and cemetery to look for family Gravestones. I found twenty Graham monumental inscriptions. Some names and families I recognised, others were new and welcomed discoveries. In the cemetery there are five Graham relatives buried since 2000 so my Graham relatives may still be living in the local area or returning to Biggar to be buried.

I visited the very interesting and Upper Clydesdale Museum where the Museum Curator was able to show me documents for Graham family members who had served in the Great and Second World Wars. She also produced six 19 century studio portrait photographs of various unknown Graham family from a folder marked ‘from a Graham family album’. I was delighted to have been able to have copies of these.

 The remainder of my two days were spent locating the streets, roads and some of the houses where my Graham families had lived at the times of the 19th century and 1911 censuses. All this was done in between a few refreshment visits to the local Crown and Elphinstone pubs in Biggar High Street. In both very welcoming hostelries I met some friendly and helpful locals who offered to take some of my enquiry cards and ask around about Graham’s in the area.

 It was a great visit and I  feel I shall be returning in the future. I’m forever optimistic and hopeful some more family research leads will follow.  Never wanting to miss an opportunity to appeal for family relatives I pin my last enquiry card here!

 Searching for Graham descendants in Biggar and the Border areas of Upper Clydesdale, Lanarkshire Scotland

Are you descended from a Graham family who lived in Biggar or the border areas of Upper Clydesdale Lanarkshire, Scotland in the 19th and 20th centuries?

If you are I would very much like to hear from you.

Other surnames who married into the Graham family and I would like to hear from are:  Anderson, Burton, Black, Campbell, Dickson, Dunn, Good, Geddes, Johnston(e), Maxwell, McLellan, McKinley, Nimmo, Proudfoot, Steele, Shields, Smith, Stobbo, Shiene, Wilson, Watson, Walker.

Contact: Donald Steele Wilson Graham

 Email: donald.graham58@outlook.com

Tel: 01643 702170

Address: St. Louis Cottage, 38, Bampton Street, Minehead,Somerset TA24 5TT

Posted by Bette Baldwin