It’s not often you see sheep with St Paul’s in the background. But that’s what happened on a baa-rmy September Sunday.
The Worshipful Company of Woolmen is one of the oldest livery companies in the City of London. It’s origins go back to 1180. I mentioned the livery companies previously and even visited many of their buildings during the annual London Open House event.
The sheep guild’s members (as Freemen of the City of London) have an ancient right to drive sheep across London Bridge without paying a toll to sell them at Smithfield Market.
Nowadays, this right is not exercised except annually as a fund-raising event in September. Freemen (which includes women) queue up at stations to take turns to walk sheep across the bridge. This weekend they were driving the sheep on Southwark Bridge. A celebrity usually makes an appearance too.
I asked one Freeman how he became one. He said he’d been approached by someone. He said, “I can’t believe a fat bloke like me from Putney can become a Freeman!” When I mentioned the Freemasons, who used to have a sinister reputation, he said he was a Freemason too! He said that they generally do charitable work and cited the red rescue helicopters flying over London as something the Freemasons fund.
The sheep were very friendly. You could stroke them. They seemed to enjoy it. Hand sanitiser was provided. Normally, in a rural setting, you can’t get anywhere near them. They run away.
The man shearing the sheep was very careful not to snip them. The wool itself was cleaned and used to spin yarn. One man was using a hand-driven wheel and another couple were using foot-operated spinning contraptions. This was new to me. The man explained the process. It was interesting how they were twisting the fibres together to form a continuous thread. Sometimes they use two separate threads to spin a yarn.
After leaving the sheep (and people), we walked to the South Bank along the Thames. It was very busy. We saw this new mural — Frida: The Making of an Icon. It’s to celebrate the life and legacy of Frida Kahlo. Currently, there are posters all over the underground advertising the major exhibition on at the Tate Modern.
