Tag: farming

Posting 1 Digital Archiving and Exmoor Sheep Records Over 2024, The Friends have been busy archiving, digitising and digitally archiving the many items held in our collections.  These archiving activities often allow, and indeed often require, time spent looking in depth at material held in the collections.  That has certainly been the case over this year.  It has involved looking at photographs in more detail and reading printed material in more depth.  These activities are necessary to help with the decision-making process about how best to catalogue and describe items and the best tags and categories to apply.  In some cases, this aspect of archiving work can throw up new insights and set off a new train of research and recently our interest was piqued by two sets of Stock Diaries held in our collection.  They are written by Robert Tait Little Robert Tait Little – hoaroak  and Bill Little Little – hoaroak.  These men were not related but both were shepherds from the Scottish Borders, who lived and worked on Exmoor from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s.   Their stock diaries hold a wealth of information about the sheep raised on several Exmoor hill farms including, for example, Badgeworthy, Duredon, Winstitchen, Toms Hills and Hoar Oak to name but a few.   In some cases, they also recorded other bits of information which, over the years, have proved invaluable to the work of The Friends.  See for example this item about Shepherd John Renwick of Hoar Oak.  Renwick – hoaroak  We noticed that both men had recorded in their diaries the origin of rams used for breeding Cheviot sheep on Exmoor and the links of these breeding rams back to Scottish farms in the Borders.  Although the two shepherds’ diaries span over 100 years it seems this tradition of importing fresh blood from Scotland continued through their time on Exmoor.  Bill Little even left behind photographs of some of his prize winning rams.  With the help of a great friend of The Friends – Nora Solesbury, who lives in the Scottish Borders and has a lifetime’s expertise in sheep, sheep breeding and sheep markets – we’ve been trying to unlock the stories held in Robert’s and Bill’s diaries.  These researches formed a series of postings on FaceBook and Instagram in January 2025. They have been collated here into one blog posting. We will be adding to this blog and putting an alert on social media when there is new information to read.     Posting No. 2   Two Shepherd Littles.  Two sets of Diaries. Robert Tait Little and Bill Little were both shepherds on Exmoor, both came from the Scottish Borders and both had strong links to Hoar Oak Cottage.   Despite sharing a surname, the men were not related. Robert Tait Little – hoaroak  and Bill Little Little – hoaroak.  Both Robert Little and Bill Little are remembered for their knowledge of, and expertise in, breeding sheep –   especially Scottish Cheviots and Blackfaced – the two breeds of sheep imported onto Exmoor by Frederic Winn Knight of Simonsbath.  Part of their job as shepherds involved keeping records, and both men kept stock diaries which have, thankfully, survived and been shared with The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage who have digitised and saved them in the archive. Stock diaries are kept by shepherds to record the day to day, week to week or even annual records of what happened with their sheep and include details of, for example, the monthly ‘head count’ of the flock, including live sheep, deaths or losses – often described as ‘gone amissing.’  The diaries also included the numbers of lambs born, sales at market, shearing dates, prices obtained for wool and meat as well as records of the rams used to breed with in any particular year.  The photo above, on the right, is of Robert Tait Little’s diaries from the 1880s to just before he died in 1907.  Small and neatly ruled notebooks they hold sheep records from across the Exmoor Hill Farms from his time as Head Shepherd for, firstly, Frederick Winn Knight and then for the Fortescue Estate.  One of the diaries is still with the family.  These four were discovered by The Friends family historian, Nicky Rowberry, held in a back room of the Devon Records Office in Exeter.  Roger Burton, in The Heritage of Exmoor, mentioned these books being in the Devon Record Office in the 1980s in amongst a box of Fortescue papers. That was where Nicky found them in 2012. A member of the Little family came forward with a fifth diary which completes the set. Image below of the inside cover with Robert’s beautiful script. The Friends arranged for all of the diaries to be digitised – thanks to the Devon Family History Society; and also, to be transcribed – thanks to many volunteers coming from the North Devon Voluntary Services in Barnstaple. The diaries have now been catalogued by the South West Heritage Trust and are available to view at the Devon Record Office, catalogue reference 1262M/0/E/21/7&8.   All five can be viewed digitally on request to The Friends.  Email: info@hoaroakcottage.org The photo above, on the left, shows the collection of Bill Little’s stock diaries which cover the period from the mid-1930s to the late 1960s.  These are a combination of ordinary notebooks as well as more modern stock record books printed for the Fortescue Estate.  The later include copy pages (flimsies) used with carbon paper in order to make tear out copies, one for the shepherd, one for the Estate and one left in the stock diary.  Most of these have now also been digitised – the rest are an ongoing project – and are safely in the hands of Bill Little’s descendants. Posting No. 3 The Hoar Oak Herding Stock Diary 1930s One exciting aspect of this Scottish Shepherd’s Diary project, at least for The Friends, is the small black notebook (image attached) which is revealed, by the writing on the inner page, (image annotated 1) to be Bill Little’s stock diary for the Hoar Oak herding dated 1933. In fact, Bill used this diary in the 1930s at Hoar Oak herding and then later, in the 1950s, when he was shepherd at The Mines herding near Simonsbath.  Wheal Eliza Mines herding and cottage is along the River Barle as it flows north of Simonsbath. The move from Hoar Oak to The Mines was linked to the distance the Little children had to walk to school.  The Mines was closer to Simonsbath and the journey could be done – to school and back – in the same day.  For many of us that would count as a good Sunday hike deserving a pint at the Exmoor Forest Inn!!  For the Little children it was just a matter of ‘getting to school.’ When Bill was shepherd of the Hoar Oak herding and the family lived in Hoar Oak Cottage he maintained the tradition of keeping a stock diary.  The image of one of the pages in this diary (annotated 20) is from the 12th of June 1937 and records in detail the numbers of ‘sheared hoggs’, ‘barren ewes’ and ‘sheared ewes’ that were running, that day, on the Hoar Oak herding. The image of another page (annotated 23) is shared for its stock records – the numbers of stock ewe lambs and hoggs brought from Castle Hill to the Hoar Oak herding – but also because it contains a drawing of a flag which looks very much like the Scottish flag.  Although the Scottish Saltire, as the flag is commonly known as, is actually a white cross on a blue background Bill’s drawing does look uncannily like the Saltire.  We shall never know.  We only know, as will be revealed later, that Bill made many trips to Scotland buying Cheviot rams and may have had the Scottish flag on his mind. In the next postings we’ll continue to share information from Robert Tait Little’s and Bill Little’s collections of stock diaries.  Posting No. 4   Lambs born on Exmoor 1882 and a plague of maggots Robert Tait Little had been employed by Fredric Wynn Knight to be Head Shepherd on the Exmoor Estate.  He was recruited from a sheep farming family in Dumfries and came to Exmoor with his wife Jane.  The image below of Robert and Jane is thanks to Roger A Burton. (Heritage of Exmoor 1989)      For most of his life as Exmoor Head Shepherd, Robert and Jane lived and farmed Duredon  Here is the historic record for Duredon Farm.  MEM23060 – Duredon Farm – The Historic Environment Record for Exmoor National Park. On retirement, and after their children had left home, Robert and Jane were moved to live at Limecombe   MEM23855 – Limecombe Cottages – The Historic Environment Record for Exmoor National Park where their son Tom was the shepherd. As Head Shepherd, Robert’s stock diaries cover all of the sheep farms created by Frederic Wynn Knight and some record information about all of the farms and some about individual farms.  The image below is of a page recording the annual totals for lambs born in 1882 and 1883 on the herdings at Winstitchen, South Forest, Larkboro, Badgeworthy, (H)Oar Oak, Cornham, Duredon and Pinkery.  By comparison, the image below records two pages in Robert’s 1892 stock book which contains specific information about the herding at Badgeworthy Farm.  It includes meticulous records of the number of sheep on a month by month, sometimes week by week basis.  There are other titbits of information included on the page such as the July 1st 1892 record of a ‘plague of maggots’ and a note in the December 1893 record that there was 1 sheep ‘amissing found dead.’  The page ends with a record of the name of the Badgeworthy shepherd at the time – Thomas Armstrong from Scotland.   All of Robert’s diaries contain this sort of ‘stock numbers’ information for all of the Exmoor sheep herdings (from 1880s til his death in 1907) as well as bits and pieces of additional information – much of which has helped The Friends with plotting which Scottish shepherd was on which Exmoor herding on which year as well as when they arrived and when they left – although some of course didn’t leave and their descendants are still on Exmoor.  More about Robert Tait Little on this link: Robert Tait Little – hoaroak. Posting No. 5   Bill Little and his stock diaries. Image: Bill and Dorothy Little (nee Jones of Simonsbath) with son David outside Hoar Oak Cottage. Note: the wrought iron cladding to keep out the damp. Photo thanks to David Little. Bill Little was the son of John Little from Peebles on the Scottish Borders who had been employed by Frederic Winn Knight.  More about the Littles of Peebleshire on this link Little – hoaroak .  Bill married Dorothy Jones from Simonsbath and moved into Hoar Oak Cottage when Bill was employed to run the Hoar Oak herding.  The image shared here is of Bill, Dorothy and their son outside of the cottage in the 1930s.   Later they moved to the herding at Wheal Eliza Mine, aka ‘The Mines’,  in valley of  the River Barle  MSO12505 – 19th Century cottage at Wheal Eliza – The Historic Environment Record for Exmoor National Park Bill Little’s stock diaries, compared to Robert Tait Little’s, tend to be more specific as he is recording activity on one herding.   The image shared here, annotated ‘20’, is of his diary entry for June 1937 for the sheep on the Hoar Oak herding where he records, for example, the numbers of sheared hoggs, of barren ewes, lambs, sheared gimmers and ewes.   As well as the ‘day to day’ or ‘year to year’ records of the count of sheep on the Exmoor herdings it was interesting to find that both Robert Little and Bill Little record quite specific information about the rams or ‘tups’ used for breeding on Exmoor.  And that information leads to links back to the Scottish Borders and the shepherds who came down to Exmoor back in the 19th century to work for the Knight family.  Helped by a great friend of The Friends, Nora Solesbuy from Ayrshire – who has a long professional background in sheep farming and sheep markets – we have been able to interrogate these records and the next few postings dig a bit deeper into the pages of Robert and Bill’s stock diaries which contain information about Scottish rams used for breeding sheep on Exmoor. Nora also has links to the Hoar Oak Cottage story  –  she is part of the Johnstone family who sent two ‘sons’ down to Exmoor from the Scottish Borders – James Maxwell Johnstone  Johnstone – hoaroak   who farmed at Hoar Oak Cottage and William Johnstone who farmed at Badgeworthy – find out a bit more about William on this link https://hoaroakcottage.org/scottish-shepherds/.  Posting 6:  Pedigree Cheviot Rams from Scotland As Exmoor Head Shepherd, Robert Tait Little, would be responsible for ensuring that there were fresh blood lines of tups to breed with the herds on the various sheep farms on Exmoor.  He also needed to ensure that these tups, who would be the sires of new lambs, were from reputable farmers, were physically strong and had no obvious health issues or abnormalities that could be inherited.  As a Scot from Dumfries, it is not surprising that Robert Tait Little would look to the Scottish border farms and sheep sales to regularly find new blood stock.   The image is of a page from Robert Tait Little’s stock diary covering 1889 to 1906 and is entitled ‘Pedigree of Cheviot Tups used at Duredon.’ RTL would use these rams to breed with ewes on his farm at Duredon in order to produce a new generation of young sheep.  To produce young females to replace aged ewes and young males to be assessed for their potential use as tups for breeding.  In time, these new blood lines would be distributed around the Exmoor herdings that Robert Tait Little he was responsible for – Larkbarrow, Toms Hill, Badgeworthy, The Mines (Wheal Eliza), The Chains (Hoar Oak), Duredon, Winstitchen and many others.  This aspect of his job as Head Shepherd required a huge amount of skill, a good eye for both the ram and ewes being bred from and excellent record keeping of which rams went to which Exmoor herding in order to ensure there was no risk of inter-breeding. Nora explains the entry in his stock diary about the Pedigree of Cheviot Tups at Duredon as follows: The first column contains the year the ram was introduced onto Exmoor for breeding and the second column contains breed information about the ram: its sire and the farm it came from.   For example, the 1889 entry records that the ram is called ‘Argyle’ by ‘Sourhope’ (pronounced Soorop). The name ‘Argyle’ indicates he would have been from a line of sheep originating in Argyllshire and his sire was a tup from Sourhope Farm in Kelso which lies within the boundaries of the historic county of Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders.    Looking at the 1896 entry we learn that, in that year, the ram ‘Selkirk ‘was used for breeding on Duredon.  Selkirk’s sire was also a tup from ‘Sourhope’ which, as with Argyle in 1889, was the name of the farm on which it had been bred.  At that time Sourhope was farmed by Robert Sheil who was well known for the quality of his Cheviot sheep.  Newspaper reports tell of Farmer Sheil selling his Sourhope rams for breeding at markets held in Kelso and St Boswells from 1880 – 1890 and that they were making good prices.  Sadly, none of these reports tell us the names of purchasers Similar information can be gleaned for each entry and Nora reflects that “judging by the number of ewes recorded by Robert Tait Little on each of the Exmoor herdings there would be several other tups involved along with the new ones recorded in his stock diaries.  Tups run with ewes in two, 17 day cycles and are often exchanged with another from a different part of the same herding on the 18th day.  That enables the second tup to catch up with ewes ‘missed’ by the first one.   In the next posting we look at Bill Little’s stock diary and the information he recorded about importing Scottish rams onto Exmoor in the 1960s. Posting No. 7    100 years later and Scottish sheep are in favour In the early 2010s, Bill Little’s son David, who grew up at Hoar Oak Cottage and later Wheal Eliza Farm (aka The Mines), told the Friends how his father was a well-respected sheep breeder on Exmoor, importing fresh bloodstock from Scotland and then sharing their offspring ‘round to the hill farms to refresh the bloodline of the Cheviot sheep.  David remembered going up to Scotland with his Dad, on the train, to attend the Hawick sheep markets in order to purchase new tups which would be shipped back to South Molton on the train.  The image is from one of Bill Little’s Stock Diaries and the page is entitled ‘Cheviot Rams From Scotland’ acquired and used for breeding in the years 1964, 1965 and 1966. Nora’s interpretations of this page tell us such a lot and a few examples are given here: Sheep No. 1 identified as ‘Upper Hindhope’ came from a farm of the same name in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire.  It was farmed by W J Douglas who was President of the Cheviot Sheep Society between 1963 and 1965.  Clearly a prestigious source of a new ram for Exmoor and someone Bill Little, or his father John, would have known about from their roots back in the Borders. Sheep No. 6 in 1964 and Sheep No. 15 in 1966 are listed as coming from Castle Crawford – a farm on the Hopetoun Estate at Crawford, Lanarkshire. It featured regularly in market reports of the 1960s for consistently good animals being bred and marketed from there. Sheep No. 11 from 1965 has the wonderful name of Fingland Wamphray named after Fingland Farm near Wamphray, Dumfries which was owned by Sir John William Buchanan Jardine.  The name allegedly comes from the Old Norse word “fingl” meaning “a marshy place” and the Scottish Irish name Wamh-fri meaning the den or deep glen in the forest. Read more on this link Fingland – Name Meaning and Origin  More of these interpretations from Bill Little’s diary will be included in this post – keep an eye out! Nora’s investigations of both Robert Tait Little and Bill Little’s diaries show that, interestingly, some of the names of the tups, and the farms they come from in Scotland, appear in both diaries. It seems that Bill was purchasing from the same Scottish breeders and farms that Robert had purchased from but six or more decades apart. In the next posting we’ll share a few more titbits of interpretation as well as some oral history and a photo of one of Bill Little’s award winning Cheviot Ram. Posting No. 8    Fit for purpose and the importance of a ‘twirl’.  Throughout both Robert Tait Little’s and Bill Little’s diaries one finds records about sick sheep, sheep that have ‘gone amissing’, sheep that have been sold or sheep that have died.  Indeed, in Bill Little’s list of his Scottish rams he notes those that have died or been sold.   The death of a ram is probably self-explanatory, but Nora explains the reasons why a tup might be sold.  It could be because its offspring were weak or sickly; because the tup had some physical attribute which was inherited by the lambs, for example, having big heads which could cause difficult births and/or damage to the ewes or when, despite being with the ewes for the requisite time period, the tup only sired a small number of lambs.   Perhaps most worryingly, however, is if it is found that the tup has a genetic flaw which wasn’t evident to the shepherd’s eye on market day.   Although a tup can look good when ‘dressed’ for market, there can sometimes be a ‘hidden’ flaw which is inherited by the lambs.  For example, a ‘twirl’ of wool growing on the tup’s forehead which can be passed on to their progeny.  This curl is felt to spoil the sheep’s appearance and can affect the value of the animal. The seller may trim the ‘twirl’ off for sale day, but it will grow back and be noticeable again.  By that time, it is too late for the Buyer to complain and seek a price reduction – especially in the case where the sheep has been brought all the way down from the Scottish Borders.  We’ve tried to find an image of such a ‘terrible twirl’ but with no success.  Any shepherds out their able to help with a photo?  David – Bill Little’s son – remembered accompanying his father on the trips up to the Scottish sheep markets. They would travel by train from South Molton up to the Borders, most often to Hawick in Roxburghshire where there still are important sheep markets.  Hawick Sheep Market was, in the 1960s located alongside the railway yards, making it easy for Bill and his son David to get to the market and then to load beasts purchased at the market onto a train to send down south to Exmoor.  They would purchase both sheep and sheepdogs to breed from and the animals would be crated up for their train journey south.  David recalled how a handwritten note would be attached to the crate saying ‘Please give this animal water’ and presumably some kind member of the train crew would do exactly that. David also recalled how his father would distribute the new rams he had either purchased in Scotland or bred himself on Exmoor around the other sheep farmers up on the Exmoor hill farms.  The shepherds would gather together and Bill would, so David said, put all the names of the tups in a hat and pass it round.   Each shepherd would draw a name out of the hat and that would be the tup he took back to his farm.  However, if Bill knew that that ram should not be run with that particular sheep farmer’s herd, he would ask the shepherd to put the name back in the hat and draw out another one.  In this manner, which relied heavily on Bill Little’s knowledge, skills and memory, there was never any fear of in-breeding.   Nora comments that, “Bill’s distribution methods  makes sense where new tups are being allocated.   As well as avoiding risks of inbreeding Bill would be aware of the general physical condition of the ewes as well as the new tup’s potential ability to cope with the terrain and weather conditions. ” Bill had great success in the local sheep fairs and at local sheep markets on Exmoor and the image is a photo of him with one of his prize-winning Cheviot sheep – possibly at South Molton Market.    In the next posting – Number 9 – we’ll say our farewells to Robert Tait Little and Bill Little and acknowledge their legacy to Exmoor sheepfarming. Posting No. 9 The legacy of two Exmoor Shepherds from ScotlandWe hope you’ve enjoyed reading a little bit about Robert Tait Little’s and Bill Little’s Stock Diaries and the insights they have given into the role of Scottish sheep, in particular breeding rams, on Exmoor in the 19th and 20th centuries. No doubt there are still hints of these blood lines in some of the Cheviot sheep on Exmoor and certainly it is still possible to see Scottish Blackface sheep around Hoar Oak Cottage. Both men’s legacies are recorded, in no small part thanks to the research of Roger A Burton (published in The Heritage of Exmoor) as well the amazing friendliness and generosity of their descendants in sharing information and photos with The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage. Robert Tait Little was originally employed by the Knight family, he was kept on as Head Shepherd when the Exmoor Estate passed to the Fortescue family. He was still Head Shepherd in 1905 and can be seen in this iconic photo from 1905 of all the Exmoor shepherds taken at shearing time with Lady Fortescue – the 4th Earl’s wife. (Photo thanks to Roger Burton). Robert is in the middle at the back – the tall man with a fine white beard. He retired from Duredon to Limecombe with his wife Jane. Son Tom, shepherd at Limecombe, is also in the photo alone with several other Scottish shepherds – Archie Jackson, three of the other Little family – Will, Will Jr and Jack. Robert Tait Little became ill with cancer in 1906 and in 1907 the Fortescue family paid for him to go to London for an operation. Sadly, Robert died, and his body was returned by train back to Exmoor. His granddaughter told The Friends that when his coffin arrived at the Simonsbath estate office his sheep dogs were there waiting for him. They had come from Limecombe to welcome their master back home. Robert has entries in his stock diaries right up until just a few weeks before he died. Bill Little became something of a local celebrity just before his death in the 1980s. An article about Bill appeared in Big Farm Weekly in October 1981 (photo) It reported that he was awarded a Long Service Medal for his service to the Fortescue Estate. Photo attached. The article notes that as the sheep were on land over 1500 feet above sea level the Exmoor shepherds often had to work in extreme conditions searching for and digging out snowbound ewes. Bill was also the inspiration behind an HTV Documentary – The Sheep Walk – a TV Series fronted by historian Asa Briggs (photo) Asa replicated the often discussed ‘sheep walk’ in which the Scottish shepherds on Exmoor were thought to have walked herds of Cheviot and Blackfaced sheep down to Exmoor from Scotland for the Knight family. Both Bill and his wife Dorothy appeared in the series. That TV film is in the Film and TV Archive in The Box in Plymouth and Asa Briggs donated a video copy to The Friend’s Archive. Both Robert Tait Little and Bill Little are buried in Simonsbath Churchyard. Descendants of both men have become great friends and supporters of The Friends of Hoar Oak Cottage. We continue to research what they and their stock books can tell us not only about sheep farming on Exmoor in the 19th century but the social history of this intriguing period of sheepfarming history on Exmoor. When a Scot’s twang could be heard as frequently as the Devonshire dialect and Hogmanay, not Christmas, was the big celebration of the year.Foot Note: Nowadays there is a healthy return of the native Exmoor breed of sheep – the Exmoor Horn – on Exmoor. This is a beautiful, hardy and resilient sheep which sadly Frederic Wynn Knight, back in the 1850s, rejected in favour of imported Scottish Cheviots and Blackfaced. Paddy Groves – a great-grandson of Scottish shepherd James Maxwell Johnstone who farmed at Hoar Oak Cottage from the 1870s til 1904 https://hoaroakcottage.org/johnstone/ – is a well-respected breeder and proponent of the Exmoor ‘Horny’ as they are affectionately known. The photo is of Paddy’s flock and you can learn more about his farm on https://www.woodsdulverton.co.uk/our-farm/ You can find out more about the Exmoor Horn sheep on this link https://exmoorhornbreeders.co.uk/Exmoor