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

Selling the "Clip"

After clipping, the farm sells its "clip". It used to be said, even as recently as 5 to 10 years ago, that the wool clip should pay the mortgage or the rent of the farm for the year. This is very unlikely to hold true nowadays since the value of wool has dropped and that of land has risen.

Each thick hessian "sheet" of wool weighs around 80kg (180lb). The sheets are held together by double ended steel hooks run into the material. There are ten sheets on this wagon, so the load is a little less than a ton, not counting the vehicle itself. Wool sheets such as these, and newer ones of woven plastic, are still used to hold the wool from Cumbrian farms and are taken to Wool Marketing Board centres for the clip to be graded and auctioned. The most local collection centres at Hexham and Carnforth have recently been closed. They have been replaced with a new centre at Carlisle.

Wool being moved from the Great Northern railway yards to the mill in the 1920s.

However, owing to the difficulties of Foot and Mouth Disease, this was temporarily abandoned in favour of a centre at Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. Then problems became apparent in the moving of wool from "infected areas" through "clean areas" and collection was again halted. The remaining 2001 wool clip from west of the M6 motorway was finally moved to Carlisle in January, February and March 2002, while wool from east of the motorway went as usual to Bradford. This is the pattern in force in 2002.