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

The Value of Wool

Hand clipping, 1985

Hill-bred wool - hardly valued today

The hill-bred Herdwick and Rough Fell wool has to be coarse to repel local high rainfall and wind. It does not usually fetch a high price, because the clothing trade requires a fine staple to make soft, closely woven fabrics.

In recent years, British hill bred wool has been almost worthless: around 1995/1996, one penny was paid by the Wool Board for every 2 kilos of Herdwick wool. Even in 2001/2002 good quality Swaledale wool was selling at 19p while poor quality wool made only 10p a kilo. Since clipping a ewe costs around 50p and a fleece off the hill-bred sheep will only weigh a couple of kilos, some farms in the Central Lakes area have simply burnt or buried the fleeces once the sheep had been clipped. It was not worth the trouble of rolling the fleeces, putting them into wool sheets and storing them for collection by the Wool Board's wagon.

Left: A Swaledale ewe loses the second half of her winter jacket. July 1985.

Alternatives

Other uses are being found for coarse, weatherproof wool - it makes indestructible carpeting, and a local firm from Dacre is marketing wool as house insulation, ready formed into suitable units for building infills.

A valuable crop in times gone by

Local town mottoes and coats of arms testify to the value wool has had for the local economy through the centuries: for instance, Kendal's motto is "Pannus mihi panem" - "Wool means bread for me".

During the early Middle Ages England supplied European countries with fine, warm wool. Linen was almost the only other fibre available for making fine cloth. No cotton or silk had yet been imported. Wool had a hungry market and commanded high prices.

Right: Many farms had their own smaller version of this large grindstone to sharpen tools of all kinds, including sheep clippers.