A long time ago, but yesterday too. Rain On My Window (Tears in My Eyes) will be an ongoing tale of my early memories of life shared by my younger brother David on Whitehall Farm in Stronsay, Orkney, of our childhood on a working farm in the 1930s before we lost our innocence.
No 84 DIPPING SHEEP. pb. 1.10.2010
Today we have wonderful automated systems for dipping sheep, or jet spraying them, just drive them through and job done. But my first memories of dipping sheep were not so.
At Whitehall there was a sheep dipper which passed through, or rather under, the byre wall. The sheep pen was outside the wall, and the poor ewes, massively heavy Half Bred ewes from Eday, were one by one caught and manhandled by two men backside first into the dipper from outside. This manhandling system on Dipping Day will be recognised by many older shepherds, and their often unwilling helpers.
Inside the byre the dipping man stood in a pit at the side of the dipper awash with dip but wearing rubber boots against the flood, and over them oilskin waterproof leggings. All encased in an oilskin worn back to front and buttoned down the back by someone else. At least it gave an almost waterproof front. Some wore an apron as well. Many a time it was an old heavy hessian bag to cover the more vital spots, held round his waist with binder twine and again tied behind him. It was a real Turkish Bath, a very proper sweat box in the humidity indoors. The whole ensemble was completed with an oilskin sou’waster, or just a bonnet or “kep” worn back to front.
There was a pit on either side of the dipper which catered for a left or a right handed man, the floor of the pit being at the same level as the bottom of the dipper. The dipper itself was made of slabs of heavy sawn Caithness Flagstone, tightly fitted, often with lead strip sandwiched between the flags to make it all waterproof. Water tanks of similar construction were in common use, there are still some around in many gardens even if not now being used to environmentally collect rainwater off the roof. Most outdoor laundries – or washhouses - had similar, there is still one at Isauld and one at Greenland Mains. These wonderfully constructed tanks were common around most farm steadings as well.
At Whitehall, and also still at Greenland Mains, the dipper was indoors so a real muggy atmosphere soon prevailed, memorably heavy and humid, with Carbolic and other tarry aromas and all the smelly things Dip Manufacturers though might work against the many pests sheep were prone to. The sheep stood in the byre for a time to let the dip drip before going outdoors again.
The man in the pit had to reach across in front of each ewe while it was still being held backwards by his helpers, grasp the far away front leg before they let go and turn the sheep over backwards in the dip. Not too heavy a task if the tank was reasonably full but when the last of the dip was reached and the last of the ewes came through it could be a heavy heave over. Still holding the far off leg right handed, left hand on the sheep’s brisket, he plunged the sheep twice under while still on its back.
Letting go of the leg, the ewe by a quick twist usually righted itself, though an occasional one might need a little help. The head had to go under twice when the sheep was on it’s back, if you did not catch the ewe properly it could be pretty heavy work to get the head completely under.
Topping up the dipper was fairly constant, a dip stick with 50 gallon marks cut into it so when down by 50 a barrel full of ready mixed dip was tipped onto the floor to run back in and keep levels at an easy turn-over level.
Intention to Dip had to be notified to the Police at least 7 days in advance and in theory the local policeman would attend, or at least put in an appearance. The magic proscribed time in the dip for an ewe was one minute, and the bobby sure could slow things down. I remember once with a stop watch. Butt he had other things to do and other places to go so as soon as his bike was off up the road things speeded up marvellously !!!.
After it’s proscribed minute the ewe climbed a slope out of the dipper with excess dip pouring from it, staggering with the weight of it if heavy-wooled in the Autumn dipping, shaking spray all around. There was a series of dripping pens to hold the soaking sheep, and they progressed up the building with less and less falling so at the far end the driest pen was allowed outdoors. The lambs were always separated so ewes and lambs rejoined with much bleating. .
From my first early knowledge at Whitehall of dipping under the sucklers’ byre wall our father moved on to putting in a swim bath at his other farm of Airy in Stronsay. Jimmy Moad, the foreman, was an expert with shuttering, concrete and cement. This was so successful a dipper that the sheep from Whitehall were driven the four miles to Airy Farm for dipping, I think there and back in
the same day. We would hear them bleating in passing the Central School going homewards on Dipping Day after an early morning start from Whitehall, so easy to drive back that they practically walked home by themselves, strung out over a mile or so of road. I seem to remember that the Airy dipper was used by some neighbours.
The swim bath was great step forwards. A “W” shaped crook on the end of a long handle, usually made of iron but sometimes wonderfully carved in wood, allowed the dipping man to stand, reach under the chin of the sheep, turn it over and plunge it down with the crook in the back of it’s neck. No longer so back breaking and no longer with his arms immersed to the elbows in dip all day.
The first dipping in Caithness was of the lambs with the August Lamb Sales approaching, a few weeks being allowed for the dip colour to mellow slightly. The ewes got theirs later.
Dips used which I remember were Coopers Border Dip and Coopers Bloom Dip, coloured to a degree of pinkish orange. This was not bright enough for some people so Bloom Powder was added till the required shade of bright orange was achieved This was used for the Half Bred lambs for the dipping approaching the August Lamb Sales and a car run through Caithness in July brought many a bright shade to grace the landscape. Some were quite notable. The theory was that it made the lambs look even prettier as they went through the Sale Ring, and a whitening of their faces added to the fashion parade. Bloom Dipping is no longer used, the Wool Board saw to that by penalising stained fleeces, but whitening faces is still in vogue.
The N.C.Cheviot lambs got a more muted brown shade, umbre being added to the Dip in huge quantities. Some dips were in paste form and had to be liquefied in a huge boiler, the fire lit by the shepherd well before dawn on dipping day to get ready. The Greenland Mains boiler is still there, beautifully built, great for boiling taties now I believe!!!.
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