Aspects of animal welfare in Tickhill
Local farmers generally took a pride in how they cared for their animals as demonstrated, for example, by entering them at local shows and gaining great satisfaction from being ‘best in class’. Increasingly during the 19th century there were efforts to monitor the welfare of farm animals and anyone stepping out of line by neglecting care or not reporting contagious diseases in their animals could face court proceedings. Where disease in animals could spread and affect the livelihoods of neighbouring farmers, regulations controlled the movement of livestock, for example. A range of people were involved in keeping an eye on farm animals: veterinary surgeons, police officers and officials of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later RSPCA). Here is an instance of a veterinary surgeon finding poor care of a flock of sheep in Tickhill and how he dealt with it.
‘At the West Riding Police Court at Doncaster Mr Michael Hartshorn, a large farmer at Tickhill, was summoned for having a number of his sheep affected with scab and with not having given notice to the police. On Saturday Mr Axe, veterinary surgeon to the local authority, visited a field belonging to the defendant and amongst a flock of some eighty or ninety sheep he found several affected with scab. Some of them were so bad Mr Axe said the disease must have existed for at least two months. Neighbouring farmers had sheep in adjoining fields and defendant’s sheep got through the hedge among them although other sheep had no appearance of scab. Owner said it would cost him some £20 to salve them. Defendant fined £2/10/- including costs.’ Sheffield Daily Telegraph Saturday, 26 December 1874, page 7.
This immediate area was quite fortunate in generally avoiding swine fever in spite of cases in surrounding parishes. One reason could be the strict controls on the movement of animals through infected areas. Two Tickhill men, William Mawe a butcher and Alfred Walker a drover, who ignored restrictions and took their cattle through an infected area at Balby on their way to be slaughtered in 1889 were fined 10 shillings each with 10/3 costs. The following year Tickhill man William Hill took a ‘fat pig’ to Worksop market in contravention of a swine fever order to restrict the movement of animals. A policeman told him to take the pig back and he was subsequently fined £2 plus costs.
One of the most dreaded diseases was, and still is, foot-and-mouth which occurred locally on several occasions in the 1880s. The disease was first identified in 1839 and for the next forty years was not considered particularly serious but attitudes changed by the 1880s when stringent measures to contain the disease were introduced. The Cattle Plague Committee sat in Doncaster in March 1881. It was reported that five beasts belonging to farmer Edward Smith of Tickhill were suffering from the disease with the result that his farm was declared an infected area. In 1883 a meeting of the Sub-committee under the Contagious Diseases (animals) Act heard a report from Superintendent Sykes of the West Riding police service that he had visited several farms and found animals affected by foot-and-mouth including two beasts on the Tickhill premises of John Webster which had come from Wakefield. In each case the premises were declared an infected area. Outbreaks of the disease continued in 1883 and by December cows belonging to Mr R H Rawson, Mr W Kemp and Mr J Gleadhall of Tickhill and to Mr J Sargent of Wadworth had succumbed.
Sometimes insufficient care was shown to horses leading to the owners’ appearance in court. An inspector of the RSPCA issued a summons against John Saxton, a Tickhill farmer, in 1874 for working a horse in an unfit state. The horse had to be swung up at night to a hook in the ceiling of its stable. If it had gone down on the floor it would not have got up. Saxton was fined 55 shillings. In the same year Henry Roystone, a Tickhill pig jobber, was accused of gross cruelty for repeatedly beating a horse which died. He was fined £5 plus £1/5/- costs. In 1885 George Hetherington, a youth, with a younger boy, helped themselves to a pony belonging to Mr Rawson. After riding the pony up and down the road for more than two hours they attacked it with a heavy stick causing its death two days later. The RSPCA prosecuted and Hetherington was fined £1 with £1/13/- costs. George Fullwood, another Tickhill farmer, was fined £1/17/6 including costs in 1889 for working a chestnut mare with a two-inches wide sore on its shoulder. Local PC Bellerby gave evidence after seeing the horse at work.
The UK was the first country in the world to establish a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824. Eleven years later Princess Victoria became its patron and gave the Society its Royal title in 1840. Officials were employed by the Society to look for instances of cruelty but the Society also tried to promote good practice, for example, by encouraging the provision of water troughs and the use of humane cattle killers. The image, right, was used in the Illustrated London News as part of a centenary fund-raising effort.
The Doncaster Branch of the RSPCA held its annual meeting in the Mansion House on 16 May 1914 when a number of prizes were distributed. Pupils in elementary schools in Doncaster and surrounding districts had been set the challenge of writing essays on ‘Kindness to animals’. A prize went to Dorothy Jones of Tickhill Church (National) School. Dorothy, or Dorothea Helen Jones to give her full name, was the 14 years-old daughter of the head gardener at Sandrock House and had attended the National School since 1907. This was a good boost for the pupil and the school as well as promoting the RSPCA’s values.
Information for this page was found in a variety of newspapers on the British Newspaper Archive’s website.