BBRREEEEDDSS OOFF TTHHEE GGRRAASSSSYY DDOOWWNNSS By Mick Bassett and the Team of Aviculture Europe Photo Gareth Lloyd Hughes, courtesy of the Southdown Sheep Society of Great Britain. In the South of England - and only there as far as I know - are many 'Dew- Ponds' - natural ponds as a watering place. These are old, hundreds and hundreds of years old, man made on the top sides of the 'sea side' of the grassy 'Downs' - the chain of hills that sub verse Southern England in 3 main ridges right too Wales in the West and Kent in the East. A downland - often referred to as Downs is an area of open chalk hills. (The word 'down' derives from a medieval Germanic or Norse word ‘dun’, a hill). These dewponds have been made as long as sheep have been grazed there, so since late Neolithic/ early Bronze age times. The Dewpond is made shallow and lined with mud and hay etc. trampled in by men and oxen, to give a water repellent lining. The ponds literally fill with dew that comes in from the sea in the morning and from the mist and fog; they usually never dry out. They were often the only water source on the High Downs, so although there is a track along the Downs Top, dating back thousands of years and ancient when the Romans invaded, it was never used by them as no water for the numbers of troops they had. Sheep farming then was very different - indeed the Downs themselves would be almost unrecognisable today. The strange thing, although shrubs and trees will completely take over ground in less than 30 years, the track has ALWAYS remained 'clear' and passable, in some parts as wide as a modern country road! The present closely-grazed turf is the result of continual grazing by sheep. Various set out Walks and Rides give you the opportunity to see more of the fantastic scenery and countryside of the Downs. Try www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ for an over-view of the area. Left: Sheep at a dew pond, 1932. Photo Kirk Lincoln Dickenson. A very popular route is the 160 kilometre long ‘South Downs Way’ following the old routes along the ridges of the South Downs. Both the North and South Downs come together at the Wessex Downs, just inside the Hampshire http://my.opera.com/blackpatch/blog/ border. The eastern end, where it reaches the coast between the towns of Seaford and Eastbourne, produces the spectacular scenery of the Seven Sisters; a series of chalk cliffs that formed where the South Downs meet the sea and are gradually being eroded by the sea. Above: View of the Seven Sisters. Photo courtesy of John Hawkins. Another very interesting route is the 'Ridgeway' track that by passes many old ‘Stonehenges' like Avebury, Stonehenge, West Kennet Long Barrow, Waylands Smithy and one of the most famous, Dragon Hill (or White Horse Hill). In a tiny village on the sides of the Downs near Avebury is King Alfred’s Blowing Stone; a stone with holes in that you are supposed to be able to blow like a trumpet, the means whereby King Alfred (The Great) summoned his Saxon troops, but it didn't work for me! The South Downs have a long history; there are archaeological remains from Neolithic times. Until the middle of the 20th century, sheep-rearing was the main occupation of those living on the Downs. Several poultry breeds originated here, the most famous being the Sussex Hen, in Sussex and the Dorking, in Surrey. It is reported that the ‘Rouen’ duck was brought to the south coast & improved by the British breeders around the early 1800's. So we can say Rouens are certainly 'Southern' breeds. Then of course we have the Orpington Ducks and Chickens, which originated south of London, in Kent, which is a little nearer the North Downs. Campbell ducks (original & Khaki) originated in Uley/Gloucestershire, which is a bit away but on part of the Route between the South/North Downs and Wales, where the Malvern Hills and the Downs almost 'meet'. As for the Fancy Pigeons… 43 breeds are registered as being of British origin, but none of them really originated in The Downs. Most occurred in and around Towns; the Mid-lands, East Anglia and Scotland being hot beds in the early days. The West of England Tumbler would be the nearest to a Downland breed of Pigeons, as they were developed in and around Bristol. The city of Bristol has its own area named ‘Durham Downs’ or just ‘The Downs’. It is in the county of Somerset, this is immediately North of the county of Dorset, in which the South Downs are located. Dorking and Sussex The well-known old English fowls have been noted as a breed for any number of years, and so kept and described, as old books and records prove. The five-toed Kent, Sussex and Surrey fowls - and the ‘fighting Cocks’ - have been attributed to the Roman introduction, which is much likely, as Kent possesses a Roman road throughout. Both Columella and Pliny, Roman writers, described birds of ‘Dorking type’ with five toes. Different from what you might think, in ancient times, poultry in the southern farmyards was not merely one of the neglected appendages of the villa and farm, but was chosen and bred with much care, attention and discretion, and that not only as a source of profit, but also for pleasure and even sport. Before any poultry shows existed there were fanciers, and the table fowls of Kent were noted in history, and these, with those of Sussex and Surrey, were truthfully pronounced by competent judges to be as “table fowls, the very finest and best in the world”. Harrison Weir describes how in May, 1829, when scarcely five years old, he traveled with his mother by coach to Tunbridge Wells. Many of their relatives and friends living in Kent and Sussex were farmers, and here it was that he first saw the Kent and Sussex white-shanked five-toed black-and-red poultry, kept and known at the farms beyond time of remembrance. More than 60 years later he started writing a book - ‘Our Poultry’ published in 1902 – and described the Kent Fowl as follows: “The farmer and the poultry fancier of to-day has but little or no idea of the superior and long-tested quality of the then ancient breeds of fowls nurtured and kept about our southern homesteads, nor how much they were cared for, appreciated and valued. Both the cocks and hens were most carefully and thoughtfully selected, not only for their fineness of flesh, thinness of skin, their form and size, but also for their uniformity and beauty of color; in this respect districts and farms were known as having a certain specialty, and the fowls were not, as many modern writers ignorantly state, unculled or unmatched”. Right: Old Kent Fowl, by H. Weir, 1851. At the first ‘National’ Poultry Show, specifically for live poultry, held in the London Zoological Society’s grounds at Regent’s Park in 1845, the classification included Old Sussex or Kent fowls, Surrey fowls and Dorkings. Up to about 1850 they were the "best all-round fowls” ever known. Then with the importations of the Shanghai, the Cochin, the Brahma, there arose a craze for size; and as a consequence these coarse breeds were crossed and intercrossed with the old English breeds; the result being those pure breeds — the outcome of centuries of cultured selection and attention, the perfected strains of ‘their forefathers’ in past ages — were mongrelized, in some cases almost past recognition. From 1900 the Dorking was gradually winning its way again into the position as the best of all fowls for table purposes. This had to be done by a reversion to the old southern breeders' tactics of choosing the best-breasted, closest-feathered, pure white-shanked, having white feet and toe-nails, with white ear-lobes, or that of infusing the blood and purest breed of the old English white-shanked Game-cock. The old southern fowls, again were close-feathered, hearty and good feeders and foragers; a breed of super-excellence, of large size, fleshy, well feathered, full tailed, and particularly handsome. The Dorking was standardized in Great Britain in 1865, the clear white fleshy shanks and the white ear-lobe being distinctive, unmistakable indications of the pure breed. At present time, Dorkings have red earlobes. Left: Prize Dorking cockerel by H. Weir, 1895. Below: Dorking cockerel, 2009, with red earlobes. Being a European/old English fowl, it should have white ear-lobes and it is a pity this characteristic was neglec- ted during time. Photo Luuk Hans. Above: Dorking hen, in ‘Our Poultry’ published in 1902. The Sussex was not yet described as a ‘breed’ in the first ‘Book of Standards’ of 1865. In those days the classification “Sussex” included birds with various characteristics of shape and colour. A Standard for the Breed was drafted in 1903 and the Sussex was officially recognised as a 4-toed breed in the colours Speckled, Light and Red, later followed by Brown, Buff, White and Silver. In the 1940s another colour of Sussex was created, known as Coronation, (same pattern as Light Sussex but with blue instead of black markings) however after a couple of years of standardisation it became extinct. It has been re- created again and was re- standardised in 2002. Right: Sussex Barn-Door Fowl. Note the 4 toes. Drawing by H. Weir, 1851. Above: Pair of speckled Sussex.