What use is a stick?

By Clive Dalton

When a Border Shepherd gets up from his chair, leaving the warmth of the fireside to go outside, he does two things. He first reaches for his cap, and then he takes a stick from the rack between the beams in the ceiling above the fireplace. A good shepherd not only ‘giveth his life for his sheep’, he nivor leaves his stick (or his cap) lyin aboot either!

Which stick he chooses depends on his mission. At lambing time to catch a ewe, he'd take the long wide-necked horn-headed stick to hook around a departing ewe's neck to bring her to an abrupt stop. Fixing the head to the shank of this stick was critical, as you could be left with a shank in your hand, a departing ewe with a horn necklace, and quotations from the old Testament.

If a shepherd was off to ‘look the hill to caa’ the yowes oot’ from the lower grassy parts of the hill on to the heather tops in the late afternoons, he'd take a much shorter and lighter plane-headed stick. The correct length for this stick was for it to stretch from your left should joint to the outstretched fingers of your right hand. This length was ideal for walking on the hill among rough bent grass lumps (bull snoots) and a help for crossing drains. This stick could get a fair bit of wear over time, and I've seen many with new shanks spliced on with black insulating tape. It was never wise to ask ‘whaat brok yor stick’?

If you were off to the local mart or the village to see the bank manager, then you'd choose your ‘mart stick’ which was a bit more fancy than your daily herding stick. It could certainly have some decoration on the horn or wooden handle and perhaps include your name and the farm name, but certainly not a trout or a cock pheasant's head. These real fancy sticks were only for show.

The other important spot to show off your good stick was at the local Show where you knew that all your fellow shepherds would be there, just quietly skiting about their sticks without saying a word. They’d also be there to admire the amazing art work of stick dressers like George Snaith, Ned Henderson who made sticks for royalty.

There was one other very special place where you could do some stick skiting; it was at church. Here you'd take a smallish top quality bit of art, as you knew it would be seen during sermons when minds tended to wander. At the end of the pew was a brass handle that lifted up to hold sticks and umbrellas and had a drip-tray at the base. Here also was the place to see the lovely light and decorative ladies' sticks.

There was just one other place that a shepherd needed for a stick - to lay on the top of his coffin!