Drover (Britain)

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Drovers were responsible for the long distance driving of animals on the hoof to market in England. They accompanied their livestock either on foot or on horseback, travelling substantial distances. Rural England, Wales and Scotland are crossed by numerous drove roads that were used for this trade, many of which are now no more than tracks, and some lost altogether. The word "drovers" seems to be used for those engaged in long distance trade--distances which could cover much of the length of Britain--while "drivers" was used for those taking cattle to local markets.

It is not known for certain when the trade began. "Drove" as a placename can be traced to the early 1200s, and there are records of cattle driven from Wales to London and sheep from Lincolnshire to York in the early 1300s. Drovers from Scotland were licensed in 1359 to drive stock through England. These may be simply the earliest records of a more ancient trade. There is increasing evidence for large-scale cattle rearing in Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain. Cattle and sheep were part of the Romano-British economy. By the Anglo-Saxon period there was long distance movement of cattle, including stolen stock.

What is certain is that during the medieval period there was a substantial trade in cattle out of Wales into England, to which cattle from Ireland were added. These were driven across Somerset, Wiltshire and Berkshire to feed the growing population of London. By the seventeenth century Daniel Defoe described Smithfield as the greatest meat market in the world. In 1855 it was moved out of the city to avoid the problems of large numbers of stock being driven through the streets. Cattle were also driven to other major cities, to areas of intermediate grazing to be fattened for market, and to markets and fairs. Many of the greatest stock fairs, such as Tan Hill, Yarnbury & White Sheet in Wiltshire, were held on ancient sites to which cattle were driven for centuries, perhaps since prehistoric times.

In addition geese, turkeys, pigs, and horses were also driven to markets, and in large quantities to London. Cattle were fitted with iron shoes--and geese with boots--to protect their feet after roads were "improved". There is a record of a wager in 1740 on whether geese or turkeys would travel faster – the winner being the geese which could graze as they moved, while the turkeys had to stop to be fed.

The task of controlling herds of three or four hundred animals on narrow droves, keeping them healthy, and feeding them en route over several weeks required expertise and authority. There was licensing under the legislation intended to control badgers, although it seems to have been less rigorously applied to drovers. They were also exempted from the Disarming Acts of 1716 and 1748, which were passed after Jacobite uprisings. They were not necessarily literate but were respected as experts in their trade. The regularity of the Welsh trade across Wiltshire is proved by an inscription in Welsh on a cottage at Stockbridge, still visible in the twentieth century; "Satisfactory hay, sweet pasture, good ale and a comfortable bed".

Much of the trade in cattle from Wales to London was done on letters of credit. In 1706 the law was changed specifically to prevent drovers escaping their debts by declaring themselves bankrupt. The trade promoted the development of banking systems in both London and Wales. One drover set up his own Black Ox Bank in Llandovery in 1799, which survived until 1909 when it was taken over by Lloyds.

Droving declined during the nineteenth century, through a combination of agricultural change, rail transport, cattle disease and more intensive use of the countryside through which the stock had passed for hundreds of years. The last recorded large-scale cattle drove out of Wales was in 1870, and of sheep in 1900, although it briefly revived during the rail strike of 1912.

Although superficially similar there seems to be no link between droving and the cowboys of north or South America.

[edit] References

Bonser, K.J., "The Drovers", London, 1970
Watts, K.G., "Droving in Wiltshire", Trowbridge, 1990
Bettey, J.H. "Livestock Trade in the West Country during the Seventeenth Century", Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol.127, 1983, p.123.