Listen in : Gathering on Kinniside Common
Listen in to Sam Rawling describing the process of gathering sheep in from Kinniside Common, down to the River Calder, in July 2022. Several commoners come together and bring down all the sheep, as it’s time to shear them.
The commoners work together to bring in the sheep down, each gathering small groups of sheep and urging them downhill. Once across the River Calder (which today, fortunately, was not running deep), the sheep are urged up the slope and into a set of pens. Here, they are sorted: each sheep is marked with a ‘lug mark’ (a particular pattern of clip in its ear) and a smit mark (a coloured mark on the fleece).
