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The “proper Devon”…continued….
….is “Lord Wolseley”, the champion bull at the Royal Agricultural Society’s Jubilee Show in 1889. Bred by Viscount Falmouth, himself, and sold to a farm in Devon. Click to enlarge and thanks again to Juliet Cleave.
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The “proper Devon”….
….this is one you’ll have to click on to see the full picture. And sadly, this heifer’s identify is lost. No name, no date. But from the “feel”, I’m guessing it was taken about 1920. On the other hand, the halter hardware would seem to make it a bit later than that. This is the latest in a series of old photos uncovered by our friend and partner in Cornwall, Juliet Cleave of Kew herd.
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The “proper Devon”….
….another picture of Devon in the days of yore. This is Highfield Noble and his picture was published in 1918 in a publication called “Livestock of the Farm”. This is one of a half dozen pictures we’ll be posting of Traditional English Devon. We’re indebted to Juliet Cleave of Cornwall.
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What does the “proper” Devon look like…
….well, this is what a “good one” looked like 120 years ago. She’s Flower the 2nd, winner of the Gold Medal from the Royal Agricultural Society in 1889. Her breeder was Sir William Williams, Baronet, of Heanton, Barnstaple. There’s an on-going debate within the two Devon associations over breed “standards” but we think this female could well be the model. (click to enlarge) Thanks to Juliet Cleave of Cornwall, one of our English partners in Traditional Devon America, for the picture. She sent along a string of old pictures which we’ll be posting in coming days.
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We are about cows, after all….
….and we don’t want to get too far off subject. Here’s an English Devon cow on baby-sitting assignment in Cornwall. She’s from the Kew herd, of course, and our favorite Cornwall lass, Juliet Cleave.
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Continuing on a theme….
….then there’s this, apropo of the post immediately preceding: Thanks to our friend, Juliet Cleave in Cornwall who posted this on her Facebook page.
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There will always be an England….
so long as there is someone to worry about “class”….not good-taste-class but where-do-I-fit-in-class. I’m not sure I have this right but apparently the BBC is doing some major overhaul of class structure….deciding just who is upper and who is not. It prompted a very British rumination by one journalist (and clearly journalists are not “upper”): http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Impossibility-putting-farmers-classification/story-18662621-detail/story.html#axzz2Q3U2zE61 Actually, having spent quite a bit of time in England, my experience has been that most people don’t have any time for this any longer….except perhaps for the newly-rich. But it also reminds me of something I read awhile back: that up until World War II in the United States, family farm income was…
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On the trail of the “Highwayman”….
….a bit more information on the 1960s British champion, Uggaton Highway 2nd. Our Cornwall lass, Juliet Cleave, came up with the picture and wondered who he was. Wooz added some detail from the old herd books (including the fact that he’s an ancestor of one of the bulls calves we now have on the ground here). In case you missed her comment yesterday, I’ve pulled up the latest information from Juliet: Have just spoken to William Brent (of the now dispersed Clampit Herd): his family bought Uggaton Highwayman 2nd as an 18 month bull at the Devon Society annual sale & worked him “as much as we could” within the…
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All growed up….
well not quite. Traditional Devon Churchill is still probably not quite halfway there. But you can see “the shape of things to come”. He’s out of our favorite English cow…Tilbrook Cashtiller…by Cutcombe Jaunty. Churchill is just 18 months old but we’ve put him with a few cows to introduce him to the facts of life. This will be the last photos of our English calves for awhile. Now back to regular programming.
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Meanwhile back at Thistle Hill….
….we have a half-brother to the two young bull calves down in Georgia. This one is by Millennium Falcon, too, but the dam was Goldings Snowdrop. He’s one of six traditional English Devon calves we’re raising here. The first generation we brought over is now approaching two years of age and we’re using one of those bulls on a small number of cows in our regular herd. A kind of “test run”. For more information on our joint project with Bill and Nancy Walker and John and Patricia Forelle you can check our website: www.traditionaldevon.com