Sandy Drove
Another combined Saturday Timewatch and Sunday Landscape this weekend.
On both the modern Ordnance Survey map and that published between 1888 - 1892, the public right of way running down the hill is named "Sandy Drove". As can be seen it is a very wide route, with the name indicating that farm animals have been driven up and down the escarpment. These were probably sheep in this part of the world but could have been cattle and just possibly pigs.
Known as a "transhumance" this Dorset movement is likely to have been the reverse of what normally takes place. The animals will probably have spent the winter on this relatively high ground which would rarely be frozen or snowed in so close to the sea on the south coast of England. Once any winter flooding had receded, the animals would then have been taken down to the valley and lowland heaths for summer grazing. Most transhumance across the world goes in the opposite direction - low altitudes in winter with summer grazing on high mountain pastures.
I will readily admit another possibility is that Sandy Drove was an access track to the main west - east ridgeway from which this photo was taken. This right of way is known to be prehistoric and even up to the eighteenth century formed the main highway from Weymouth to Wool. It is entirely possible that animals were driven to market along this ridgeway track.
Sandy Drove
Another combined Saturday Timewatch and Sunday Landscape this weekend.
On both the modern Ordnance Survey map and that published between 1888 - 1892, the public right of way running down the hill is named "Sandy Drove". As can be seen it is a very wide route, with the name indicating that farm animals have been driven up and down the escarpment. These were probably sheep in this part of the world but could have been cattle and just possibly pigs.
Known as a "transhumance" this Dorset movement is likely to have been the reverse of what normally takes place. The animals will probably have spent the winter on this relatively high ground which would rarely be frozen or snowed in so close to the sea on the south coast of England. Once any winter flooding had receded, the animals would then have been taken down to the valley and lowland heaths for summer grazing. Most transhumance across the world goes in the opposite direction - low altitudes in winter with summer grazing on high mountain pastures.
I will readily admit another possibility is that Sandy Drove was an access track to the main west - east ridgeway from which this photo was taken. This right of way is known to be prehistoric and even up to the eighteenth century formed the main highway from Weymouth to Wool. It is entirely possible that animals were driven to market along this ridgeway track.