Category: Lob In The Landscape

Information and pictures of mostly rural topics and activities.

Pigs Are A Necessary Appendage To Every Dairy Farm In Wiltshire

George Alexander Cooke, in his Topographical And Statistical Description Of The County Of Wilts, published between 1802 and 1810, writes:

“Swine. Pigs are looked upon to be a necessary appendage to every dairy farm; a great number are bred with the whey and offal of the dairy, and many fatted. Barley-meal, mixed with the whey, is the general fatting food. Pease are not so much used as formerly.”

“The kind of pig is generally a mixture of the long-eared white with the black African, or Negro pig; which cross has been found to be a very great improvement.”

Lost Sheep At Maddington

Salisbury Journal, Monday 16 November 1761:

This is to give Notice, THAT there is now in the Parifh of Maddington, in the County of Wilts, twelve ftrong Chilver Twin-Teeth SHEEP, ruddled on the Shoulders and Loins, and marked with a Y in a Circle on the Handle of the Shoulder; Likewife one Ewee, ruddled as aforefaid, and marked on the Hip. Whosoever can prove them to be his Property, may, by applying to Robert Wanfborough, of Maddington, aforefaid, and paying the Charges, have them back.

Yarnbury Fair Date Change, 1752

A notice in the Salisbury Journal, Monday 17 August 1752, reads:

“WHEREAS a large FAIR has been annually held at YARNBURY-CASTLE, in the County of Wilts, on the twenty-third and twenty-fourth Days of September; This is to give Notice, That according to the Alteration of the Stile, the faid Fair will, for the future, be held on the fourth and fifth Days of October.”

Wilton Was A Noted Fair For Sheep

John Aubrey, in his Natural History Of Wiltshire, written between 1656 and 1691, noted:

“At Wilton is a very noted faire for sheepe, on St. George’s Day also; and another on St. Giles’s Day, September the first. Graziers, &c., from Buckinghamshire come hither to buy sheep.”

Aubrey adds:

“Wilton was the head town of the county till Bishop Bingham built the Bridge at Harnham which turned away the old Roman way (in the Legier-booke of Wilton called the herepath, i.e. the army path), and brought the trade to New Sarum, where it hath ever since continued.”

Burn Baking

John Aubrey, in his Natural History Of Wiltshire, written between 1656 and 1691, noted:

“Mr. Bishop, of Merton, first brought into the south of Wiltshire the improvement by burn-beking or Denshiring, about 1639. He learnt it in Flanders; it is very much used in this parish, and their neighbours doe imitate them: they say ’tis good for the father, but naught for the son, by reason it does so weare out the heart of the land.”