Herdwick

Several weeks ago I had to replace a post in my garden fence, wondering how best to dispose of the old 3” x 3” timber set me thinking about the work of Rosalie Gascoigne.

I cut the wood into slices about 1/4” thick and set about arranging them on a board, after many false starts I decided to call the work ‘Herdwick’ as the collection of similar but slightly different pieces reminded me of a flock of sheep and after painting the pieces in appropriate colours this is the result.

Herdwick,  acrylic and sawn wood on MDF panel 

Herdwick sheep are the native breed of the central and western Lake District and live on the highest of England’s mountains.  They are extremely hardy and are managed in the traditional way on the Lake District fells that have been their home for generations.

The word “Herdwyck”, meaning sheep pasture, is recorded in documents going back to the 12^th century.  Herdwick sheep are the most hardy of all Britain’s breeds of hill sheep, grazing the central and western dales of the Lake District with fells running to over three thousand feet.

Herdwick sheep

Herdwick farms have typically less than 100 acres of lower, more productive land and rely on the common grazings of the high Lake District fells.  The lambs graze with their mothers on the “heaf” belonging to the farm instilling a life long knowledge of where on the fell they should be grazing.  This is crucial as the central Lake District fells are inaccessible and a sheep which strays from Borrowdale to Eskdale will involve a 100 mile round trip by road for the farmer to collect it.