While riding the bus back home on Tuesday afternoon, Zoe spotted a construction sign warning of closed streets in central London for a big event this weekend. Immediately, she started Googling trying to figure out what was happening. To her surprise, she found that the annual London Sheep Drive and Livery Festival was happening on Sunday. Beaming with excitement at her weird find, she texted Catja and they made plans to attend with a new London friend.
A brief history of the London Sheep Drive and Livery Festival: In medieval times, sheep farmers were allowed to cross the bridge toll-free in order to sell sheep at the market. After motor vehicles became popular, the moving of sheep across the bridge became unnecessary. In an effort to maintain the traditions of the Freemen’s guild, the London Sheep Drive was started in 2013. Today, they herd the sheep across the bridge, not to bring them to the market, but simply because they can!
Catja and Zoe rode down to Southwark bridge (which Zoe learned is not in fact pronounced south-wark, but suth-erk) where sheep would be herded across starting at 10am. Expecting to see a large herd of sheep running across the bridge, we were slightly disappointed that only around 10 were slowly herded across the bridge at a time. However, there were many more fun sites to see. We wandered through the fair stalls, where Zoe purchased socks with adorable little sheep on them and Catja got a commemorative keychain.
After meeting up with our friend, we stumbled upon a man shearing sheep. We watched as he held the sheep still and blade sheared rather than electric shearing. The shearer went through the entire process of blade shearing including calming the sheep, starting at the rear and working toward the neck, and bundling the wool at the end. In addition, he spoke about the benefits of blade sheering as opposed to machine sheering.
We learned that blade shearing leaves the sheep with slightly longer hair, around 10mm, which keeps it warmer and healthier through the winter. He also spoke about the benefits of using wool, which is water resistant and better for the environment because it holds carbon and is able to biodegrade quickly. The shearer, looking for young people to take on the craft, made us all briefly think about how realistic it would be to leave our current lives behind and become sheep shearers in Somerset… but only if they’d sponsor our visas!
We then walked across Southwark Bridge, where we saw the Freemen guild members decked out in red capes and one woman in a Little Bo Peep costume leading a group of sheep back across the bridge. With food on our minds, we headed to Borough Market, just below the bridge, to grab a bite to eat and do a little explorin
In the first stall, our friend spotted a Lavender Gin and Tonic, which she immediately knew she had to try. We joked with the vendor as he told us he is opening sales in California, saying that he would definitely find a market in the U.S., just maybe only on the coasts and not in the middle. Catja then spotted a £5 prosecco lemonade that was calling her name. As we enjoyed our drinks, we wandered the market looking for donuts. While wandering, we randomly ran into a member of TCV who is studying abroad in London. Nothing better than a little reunion! We eventually made it to the Bread Ahead stall and each selected a donut. We sat down and enjoyed our snack before taking a walk along the bank back to Waterloo Station.
We made our way back home, where we patiently waited for the North London Derby (Tottenham v. Arsenal) to begin. The whirlwind of a game ended in a 2-2 draw, but we got to see Son score two goals, which is always exciting.
We hope you have a Son-shiny day!
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