Cumbria and Sheep - Clipping time - Marking sheep - Woolmarks and Horn burns - Selling the clip - Value of Wool - Counting Sheep

Counting methods

There are traditional methods of counting sheep in many of the Lakeland dales, though none seem to still be in actual use. Garnett in 1910 said even then that the method was almost obsolete and as for the names of the numbers, "but few of the farmers remember them". "Yan" is still used for "one", but the others are only known as curiosities.

Traditionally the shepherd counts to twenty, then he marks a stone or stick with a "score" and starts again. The final total is given as so many score of sheep. The method seems to be common to old Cymric or Celtic areas although the words themselves have taken slightly different forms over the years.

No	Keswick (Cumbria)	Wensleydale (West Yorkshire)	Welsh
1	yan	yan	un (pronounced een)
2	tyan	tean	dwy (du-erh, or something very like it)
3	tether	tither	tair (tire)
4	mether	mither	pedair (ped-ire)
5	pimp	pip	pump (pimp)
6	sethera	teaser	chwe (khw-eh, a soft KH in the throat, not a hard one at the front of the mouth)
7	lethera	leaser	saith (sythe with a soft TH, not voiced)
8	hovera	catra	wyth (weth or wuth with a light U)
9	dovera	horna	naw (now)
10	dic	dick	deg (OK with this one?)
11	yan a dic (one-and-ten)		un ar ddeg (as above plus THeg, with a voiced TH)
12	tyan a dic (two-and-ten)		deuddegg (deyTHeg)
13	tether a dic (three-and-ten)		tair ar ddeg (tire ar THeg)
14	mether a dic (four-and-ten)		pedwar ar ddeg
15	bumfit (fifteen)	bumper	pymtheg (pumtheg)
16	yan a bumfit (one-and-fifteen)		un ar bymtheg (p mutates to b)
17	tyan a bumfit (two-and-fifteen)		dwy ar bymtheg
18	tether a bumfit (three-and-fifteen)		deunaw (2 x 9)
19	mether a bumfit (four-and-fifteen)		pedair ar bymtheg
20	jiggot (twenty = score)		ugain (iggen)

You can read a LOT more about counting methods from various areas of Britain at:

http://www.slaidburn.org.uk/counting_sheep.htm [takes you out of Museum: use Back button to return]

Also: The Celtic Numerals of Strathclyde [download or read online; takes you out of Museum: use Back button to return]