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The Droving Tradition of the Upper Eden ValleyAs well as animals, wool, hides, coal, iron, lead, charcoal and salt were transported along the old ‘roads’ which linked the Pennine dales area. Coal was mined from the 13th century at pits south east of Tan Hill and distributed to the nearby dales using pack ponies. Salt, an important commodity for preserving meat for the winter period when fresh meat was unavailable, was transported into the area from the Cheshire plains and the north east counties using old drove ways. (When Edward III bought 100 oxen for his army in 1338 his order was accompanied by one for ten quarters of salt, with which to preserve the meat).
Thus, the dales area became overlaid by a network of tracks known as ‘drove ways’, ‘drove roads’, ‘ox roads’ and ‘drift ways’. These roads often led across the higher ground of the open fellside where free grazing was readily available for the herds and where the longer views helped the leaders or ‘Topsmen’ to navigate and avoid ambush. Quarter Sessions records at Northallerton, 2nd August 1692, record a robbery committed by 2 persons on a Drover of Kaber in Westmorland where “he had taken from him by them £144.7s at or near Ellerbecke in the hundred of Gilling West, the court recommends the inhabitants of the said hundred to repay him the said sum without any further trouble”.
Early drovers, may well have been robbers or raiders themselves but by the time of Elizabeth I they had to be licensed by 3 Justices of the Peace. Licences were only issued to married householders of at least 30 years of age and lasted for 1 year. When a licence was granted to James Barrow of Meathrop in the County of Westmorland in 1731, the profession of a drover, was described in records of Kendale (Kendal), as “the art and mystery of a Drover”. The word ‘mystery’ derived from the French ‘metier’, meaning trade. The custom was little understood by those whose modest lives were lived out within the confines of their small settlements, however, respect for the vocation was growing.
Topsmen had to be men of outstanding skill and character since on them rested the huge responsibility of conducting 300 - 1000 beasts over hundreds of miles in the most challenging circumstances. Some might be on the road for 6 months or more, sleeping rough alongside the animals with no certainty as to the financial outcome. At times they might be carrying great sums of money after the sales or be entrusted to collect taxes and even commissioned to find jobs for sons and daughters. They also carried news and letters and there are many instances when the Parish priest read the Drovers’ news to the public after the Sunday service.
The handling of the livestock was of critical importance as the stock needed to be in prime condition on arrival at the Fair. A drover “exercising any cruelty to cattle by use of any pointed stick” could be imprisoned and fined before discharge.
Scottish drovers imported other customs as well as beef on the hoof, many journeys proceeding to the tune of the pipe which probably helped to while
away the hours and provide a calming influence on the stock, “a good steady man goes with 2 or 3 in front to step the pace if they are going sweetly.”
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