Ellesmere Man Returns After Shearing In Wales

Press, Volume C, Issue 29680, 25 November 1961, Page 18

Ellesmere Man Returns After Shearing In Wales

Shearing sheep in the corners of paddocks in England and Wales, giving shearing demonstrations at shows in Ireland, appearing on television, chauffeur for a Government department in London, and sightseeing in Russia were some of the experiences of Mr M. W Horan, of Brookside, near Leeston. who has returned home after being two years overseas. Mr Horan gave shearing demonstrations in England for a manufacturing firm and then went to Dublin to give similar demonstrations at the soring show there. Later in the same month. May, he gave shearing demonstrations at the Royal Ulster Show at Belfast. The sheep were mostly Suffolks. The system he followed in the demonstrations was to shear two sheep, show how fleeces should be handled, and then give a talk over the loudspeaker. He was in Dublin for a week. There were 800 spectators at his first demonstration and the number increased each day. He gave similar demonstrations at the Royal Ulster Show and he appeared on television for five minutes each evening in Dublin and Belfast. Mr Horan’s first television interview in Dublin lasted three-quarters of an hour. He' was shown shearing a sheen and demonstrating wool handling. He was then asked for his impressions of Ireland and comparisons wr‘ih New Zealand. . What were his impressions of Ireland? In the countryside things were rather primitive compared with other countries though some of the farms he visited in Southern Ireland were as modern as any in New Zealand. Chauffeur Mr Horan took uio shearing after he and two others had toured Europe in a car thev bought. The chief aim was to see the Olympic G’mes and this was achieved. When he returned to London he got a job as a chauffeur for the Ministry of Health. His hours were from 10 am to 2 pm. and his usual job was to drive inspectors and other departmental officers to such places as Smithfield. He was '■Rationed in the borough of Hammersmith, practically the only smoke-controlled area in London, and used to take an

inspector on atmosphere pollution tests. Smokeless fuel was now compulsory in that area. His job as a chauffeur lasted for three months and a haff. “I wanted to see something of farming and do shearing so I went to the offices of the Wool Marketing Board,” said Mr Horan. “They sent me round to Agriculture House where I met Mr Hugh Crowle, secretary of the Hill Farming Committee. At his suggestion a short article and advertisement were put in the ‘British Farmer and Stockbreeder.’ X got about 250 replies in a few days asking me to go shearing on different farms. I started off on a farm near Tamworth. in the Midlands. I did 1000 sheep in the area, half of them in small mobs from various places round about. In the Open “I then met a young Welshman, Effion Evans and we teamed up. He had been to New Zealand for shearing experience. We shore 6000 sheep in the Midlands and then we went to Wales where we did 21,000 in two months. We lost only two days through wet weather. We had our own portable plant and usually we shore the sheep in the corner of a paddock, even up to mobs of 2000. The sheep were all caught for us. “In Wales the sheep are very fast shearing. They are smell and practically all are clean bellies, with nothing on the legs and they have clean heads. The average fleece weighs 31b. The pay for shearing in the Midlands is 2s 6d to 3s a head. In Wales it is Is 6d a head. Shearing as we know it in New Zealand is taking on fast in Britain and Ireland. This is due entirely to demonstrations by Godfrey Bowen and other New Zealanders.” Sightseeing After the shearing, Mr Horan and two companions toured Scotland. He then went to Russia, travelling by coach from Ostend to Berlin where he changed coaches for the trip to Moscow by way of Warsaw and Smolensk. The Berlin crisis had flared up at this time and the coach could not go from West Berlin through East Berlin but had to make a detour to the north of the city. Farming in northern Russia was primitive and the land did not seem very productive. It was common to see a woman ploughing with a horse. Accommodation in Russia was good on the whole but tourist hotel cost £4 a day without meals and in a firstclass tourist hotel the tariff was £l2 a day plus meals. “You can travel practically anywhere you wanted to during the day,” said Mr Horan. He intends going back to Britain early next year for another season’s shearing. In the meantime he is keeping his hand in by shearing in the Ellesmere district but he does not find the Romneys as easy to handle as are the Welsh sheep