Tag: lambing

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Blue Monday January 19th

Hackney Marshes, Jan 2022, Chris Sansom

Third Monday in the year – traditionally the most depressing day. Traditional in the sense of the word meaning ‘made up recently as part of a marketing campaign” in 2005. It was only a marketing stunt but seems to have stuck. So, ‘officially’ Blue Monday is the third Monday of the year. It was worked out using this ‘equation’:

[W + (D-d)] x TQ
M x NA

(W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action. (For more on Blue Monday read: https://news.sky.com )

More seriously, a large scale study has shown that: ‘suicides were most likely to happen on Monday compared to other days of the work week, with about 15% to 18% of suicides occurring on those days. And across all the studied countries, the likelihood of suicide always increased on New Year’s Day.‘

https://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-days-when-suicide-risk-is-highest-global-study-finds-2000516224

The suggestion was that people might put off any attempt, hoping the weekend might mark the turning of a corner. Then Monday arrives with no improvement. Similarly, we struggle through Christmas and New Year, and by the third monday are low on hope.

However, do not despair! If you have got through to today, things are on the up! Only yesterday, my companion pointed out that the evenings were now noticeably lighter. And also, I saw my first snowdrop. Signs that the Spring is beginning to prepare to spring. We are turning the corner, and hope springs eternal.

Samaritans & Chad Varah

If you need more help then ring the Samaritans 116 123 or visit their contact line here:

https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan

Chad Vara with Samaritan’s Phone ouside of St Stephen’s Walbrook (Wikipedia)

About 25 years ago, I used to lead a London based Cultural Studies programme on which we visited the Temple of Mithras, Saint Stephens, Walbrook, the Roman Amphitheatre and Guildhall. In St Stephen’s I would point out the glories of Wren’s most beautiful Parish Church as well as a telephone on the wall. This recorded the foundation of the Samaritans organisation by the Rector, in the Church in 1953.

The Rector was Chad Varah, and in that year the Grocers’ Company offered him the living of St Stephen Walbrook. The phone line’s original number was MAN 9000 (for MANsion House). It and the volunteers were originally in the Crypt. They received their first telephone call on 2 November 1953. Thereafter, it grew into a worldwide organisation.

Plaque on St Stephen’s wall commemorating Chad Varah;s foundation of the Samaritan’s Photo K Flude

My groups were on a strict timetable. I would sit them down on the seats (made by Chad Varah’s son) around the marvellous Carrera marble sculpture by Henry More that dominated the Church. More often as not, Chad Varah would appear unannounced and give my group an erudite explanation of the history of the Church. Then he would explain his collaboration with Moore and the controversial developer Peter Palumbo in the transformation of the interior. My schedule was shot but what a lucky day for my groups. He was always charming, and gave freely of his time.

Interior of St Stephen’s Walbrook, showing the Henry Moore sculpture which, in 1987, was very controversially installed in the Church.
St Stephens Church, Walbrook
St Stephens Church, Walbrook. This is an unusual and rarely seen view, as it is normally obscured by a building in the right foreground. It shows that Wren only put effort into those parts of the Church that were visible from the streets around the Church. (the White stone segments)

Here is a rather interesting short video of the so-called Cheshire Cheese Sculpture with Chad Varah walking around it.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=174446679595037

You might like to look at my post here which includes a recording of a Swedish choir singing in St Stephens.

Revised and Samaritans added 2026

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Lambing January 18th

Hermes the ram-bearer near Roman 1st BCE copy of 5th Greek statue
Hermes the ram-bearer, Roman 1st BCE copy of 5th Greek statue

Lambing

You are getting another copy of this because it was published without additions I made to the On This Day section.

If a lamb be born sick and weak, the Shepherd shall fold it in his cloak, blow into the mouth of it and then, drawing the Dam’s dog, shall squirt milk into the mouth of it. If an Ewe grow unnatural, and will not take her Lamb after she has yeaned it, you shall take a little of the Clean of the Ewe (which is the bed in which the Lamb lay) and force the Ewe to eat it, or at least chew it in her mouth and she will fall to love a Lamb naturally. But if an Ewe have cast her Lamb, and you would have her take to another Ewe’s Lamb, you shall take the Lamb which is dead, and with it rub and daub the live Lamb all over, and so put it to the Ewe, and she will take to it as naturally as if it were her own.

Gervase Markham, ‘Cheap and Good Husbandry’ 1613 (quoted in the Perpetual Almanac by Charles Kightly).

All about Lambing

Lambing can begin in the second part of Janauary in the south-west of the UK. But it gets progressively later as you travel north. Itinerant shearers, now often from New Zealand, travel the country shearing sheep. They will begin in the south and then progress north.

March and April are peak lambing time in the UK. But the season runs from February to April. Some farmers even lamb before Christmas (and it is not unknown to lamb in November).

The country expression is ‘in with a bang and out with the fool’ which suggests an ideal time to tup, is November 5th, on Fireworks Night. So that the lambs will be born, 5 months later, around the 1st of April. A litter is normally one or two but occasionally more. Ewe’s get fed depending on how many lambs they will be having.

Thomas Hardy & the Reddle Man

In the ‘Return of the Native’, Thomas Hardy has a character called Diggory Venn, he is a reddle man. He travels the country in a little pony and trap selling reddle. This is a red ochre dye with which shepherds mark their flock. Part of the plot is about the reluctance of women to marry a man whose red, reddle-stained face, makes him look like a devil.

The reddle is used to mark sheep, particularly before lambing. The ram is given a collar or girdle with a marker full of reddle in it. When he mounts the ewe, she will have a red mark on her back. When she has been tupped twice, she will have two red marks on her back. She will then be taken out of the field, to encourage the ram to impregnate the others. Reddle and other dyes can be used to mark lambs chosen for slaughter, or dipping, or weighing etc

(Tup is a country verb: I tup. You tup. We are tupping etc., and means what happens when the ram ‘covers’ the ewe).

For more on Thomas Hardy see my posts:

Hardy’s Henge
The End of Hardy;s Tree

And about the Mayor of Casterbridge:
Wife selling
Failed Weather Forecasting
And the most popular of all my posts: The Skimmity Ride

On This Day!

1486 – Dynastic marriage of King Henry of Lancaster (Henry VII) to Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV, ends rivalry that led to the War of the Roses

1779 – Peter Mark Roget, physician, scholar, thesaurus creator was born, brought into this world, delivered, popped out, brought forth, sprogged, engendered, begat, birthed.

1896 – First xray generating machine displayed to the public by American H L Smith, but building on the work of English physicist William Crookes and German, Wilhelm Röntgen. Portable machines, designed for hospital use on the Battlefields were developed by Spaniard Mónico Sánchez Moreno and the Polish/French scientist Marie Curie.

First Published 2023, revised 24,25,26

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Time to Tup your Sheep – November 7th

City Farm, Hackney. Small flock of Bluefaced Leicester Sheep, the big golden one is the Ram, the others are the ewes he has tupped. Photo K Flude

The old Shepherd’s saw is:

‘In with a bang and out with the fools’.

The bang is Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th, and the fools are a reference to All Fools Day on April 1st. The gestation period of a ewe is 147 days (on average). (sheep-farmers-year). So farmers introduce the Ram into a field of Ewes on or around November 5th. This means the lambs will be born around the beginning of the traditional lambing season.

(see my posts on Guy Fawkes Day and All fools Day)

Tupping Times

The Ewes have been enjoying themselves in the fields, The flocks have been thinned out, with the young ones being sent to market, mostly for meat. The grass has been growing at the end of the summer, with the wetter weather. The ewes will be in excellent condition, and will have been thoroughly checked by the shepherd.

The chosen ram will be dressed with a harness on his chest, which will have a sheep’s crayon on it. The crayon is known as raddle or reddle. The ram, also know as a tup, will mate with whichever of the ewe(s) that catch his eye. Each one he tups (mounts or covers) will be left with a paint mark, from the reddle on his chest, on her back. The farmer will inspect the ewes periodically. A ewe with two or more reddle marks on her back, will be taken out of the field. This will force the ram to spread his attentions to the, as yet, untupped, ewes. He will continue until all ewes have been tupped. And then onto the next field full of ewes. Diggory Veen is the Reddleman in Hardy’s ‘Return of the Native’. I talk about him, lambing and reddle in my post here.

Some of the young ewes will be kept to reinforce the flock. Males will only be kept if they will be sold to another farmer as a tupping ram. They cannot breed on the farm as this will lead to inbreeding. So, a ram will be purchased or swapped from another farm. The farmer will want to choose one that fits into his/her idea of what the ideal sheep is. whether it is grown for meat, or to be hardy, or for its wool etc.

Raddled

To be raddled is to be flushed, red with drink, or over made up. It has a sense of dissipation about it. One might have more sexual encounters than is normal. Just like the ewe with too many raddle marks on her back? Or the Raddle man with a red face and hands from all the raddle he handles?

Bluefaced Leicester Sheep and my Hat!

I was delighted to see my local City Farm had a small herd of Bluefaced Leicester Sheep. I was visiting with my Grandson when I took the photograph at the top of the page. The sherderdess told me the blue-marking in this case was not a result of mating. She thought 2 or more of them were already pregnant, however.

My association with the breed comes from a lovely yarn shop in Conwy (Ewe Felty Thing) which had a rail of clothes marked ‘wearable art’. I bought a woolly beanie which they told me was:

‘Hand-spun, hand knitted from a bluefaced leicester sheep.‘

Hand-spun, hand knitted Beanie from a Bluefaced Leicester sheep. purchased at (Ewe Felty Thing) Photo K Flude

I still have it. It cost a small fortune, but worth every penny!

A bluefaced Leicester Ram, might cost £1000 if a bought as a lamb, £4,000 if bought as a shearling, or up to £40,000 if a prize lamb. It is one of the biggest lambs with a long back, and longwool with ringlets. There is no wool on the face and neck so you can see its blue-grey skin, below the white hair – hence its name. It is often bred with hill sheep ewes, which combines the prolificacy of the ram with the mothering abilities of the ewes.

Generally, nowadays the wool from a shearing will only be worth about 80p in today’s market. This will not pay for the cost of the shearing, but it is necessary for health and hygiene reasons.

Posted on 7th November 2025

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