Livestock

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The Museum keeps several types of farm livestock, which can be seen in various parts of the site.  They are managed in a traditional way, and the main breeds are maintained in small numbers sufficient to be viable for breeding.

Horses

The Museum keeps draught horses. They are either pure bred Shire horses or crossed with another breed. They represent as nearly as possible the traditional size of cart horse that would have been found on farms from the middle of the 19th century until the mid 1950s. They were used for all kinds of farm work and for heavier local transport. Many of the draught horses seen today have been bred for show purposes, and the trend has been towards larger and larger animals.  The horses can be seen working on the site or at the Littlehampton Granary where you can meet them close up.

Click here for a series of pictures showing the Museum's horses working in the traditional way on harvesting, haymaking, mowing and ploughing.

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Draught Cattle (Oxen)

The Museum is exploring the use of working cows. The word “oxen” usually meant castrated males, like our previous pair Lamb and Leader, but it can also be applied to working females.

Working cows are possibly more appropriate than males for the small farmhouses at the Museum, such as Pendean farmhouse. A yeoman with a few acres is likely to have kept a pair of cows that could produce calves, milk and meat as well as being used for draught work.

Oxen need to be trained to work from a very young age. As the cows advance in their training they will work on the Museum’s field strips. Here we are exploring Tudor farming methods growing old cereal varieties and flax, using rotations, husbandry and barn working appropriate to the period.

Gwynne and Graceful, Sussex x shorthorn calves born in January 2005. They are now in their second training yoke and pulling a sledge to which weight can be added. They will soon start to do light fieldwork such as harrowing.

Rose and Ruby, Sussex x shorthorn heifer calves born in November 2006. They have been in their first training yoke since they were 4 months old. They are now pulling small logs and the load will gradually increase until they graduate to pulling the sledge.

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Sheep

The Museum has a small pedigree flock of Southdowns, the traditional short wool Downland breed which achieved success as an integral part of the Downland sheep-corn farming system until the early 1900s. It was noted for fine wool, good meat and cross breeding, but after the First World War it was affected by changes in farming methods, the ploughing of the Downland and the desire for longer, more commercial carcasses. These days this 'teddy bear' faced breed is classified as a rare breed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, but it is still commercially used for crossbreeding.

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Pigs

Paul Pinnington keeps pedigree Tamworth pigs at the Museum - a boar and one or two sows.  The sows produce two litters a year, so there are usually piglets to be seen.  Part of their role at the Museum has been to clean an area of ground in the woods, which will become woodland pasture.  Their other home is a pigsty behind Pendean farmhouse.  The ginger coloured Tamworths were first bred in the Midlands, as their name suggests, but soon became popular in many parts of Britain. We keep them at the Museum not only because they are an old, traditional, and now rare breed, but also because of their appearance, which is similar to the rangy, leaner pigs that were common in the medieval period - hence their presence behind Pendean.

Piglets at home in the Pendean pigsty.             Woodland cleared by the pigs.

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Other Animals and Birds

The Museum keeps bees in modern hives near the lake.  The bees are cared for by Museum volunteers.

Geese

Poultry

Dorking hens live in the barn from Cowfold that is part of the Bayleaf Farmstead

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