The Droving Tradition of the Upper Eden Valley

It was not unusual to see drovers knitting as they went.  This pastime-cum-industry is well documented from the 17th century onwards in the Kirkby Stephen and dales area being an occupation for all members of a family, male and female, young and old.  It is perhaps not surprising to find the trade being pursued by those accompanying the stock for it provided another source of income– it conjures up a splendid scene.

Drovers normally carried their own food – handfuls of oatmeal and one or two onions plus a ram’s horn filled with whisky!  The oatmeal mixed with water formed a porridge known as ‘crowdie’ – the name still remembered by local people as a feed for hens; the oatmeal mixed with onion and blood from the cattle made a form of blackpudding.  At a time when bloodletting was regarded as a popular pick-me-up or cure for animal ailments it is not a farfetched notion.  

In order to maintain the condition of the stock and allow for grazing on the way, the animals covered some 10 or 12 miles a day and rested in enclosed ground at night.  This explains the great number of wayside ‘rest houses’ often under an appropriate name such as “The Black Bull” – three inns in the area still retain this name.  There are 17th century records of many such buildings being used for this purpose along The Highway in Mallerstang, some have disappeared from the landscape and some are merely a pile of stones with no clue as to their vivid past except perhaps in an unusually positioned and enclosed field such as ‘The Horse Pasture’ between High Dike and Hell Gill, close to Lammerside at Bullgill or beyond the packhorse bridge at Ravenseat.  

Place names may provide further clues about the customs and traditions of the droving past.  There is a theory that places with the Hollin name, being so frequently located alongside stock tracks, might have signified the provision of stances for animals and hospitality for the drovers - the holly branch was reputedly the old signpost for hospitality.  Hollin names are evident at Brough Sowerby close to what was probably an ancient ‘road’ from Brough to Kirkby Stephen and above the Rawthey Valley alongside an old route from Sedbergh to Kirkby Stephen.
 
Apparently it was the practice for a horseman to ride ahead of the herd when approaching a settlement.  He would sound a horn to alert the locals so that their herds could be safely gathered before becoming enmeshed with the approaching tide of sheep and cattle.  However, it is doubtful that local inhabitants would have been totally unprepared since the fairs occurred at set times in the year and there would have been some expectation of the influx.  Equally, the noise created by the throng of people, bellowing animals and barking dogs would have been heard over quite a distance.