After a long period when there has been so little happening our exhibition, delayed from Festival week in June by the coronavirus pandemic, was very popular with Yetholm folk - and with visitors from the wider area. Life in the Valleys of the Kale, the Bowmont and the College, 1900-1970 was open for just three days (22nd-24th October), but there was a steady stream of visitors. Many thanks to Dorothy Sharpe for the hours she spent preparing the panels and for being present for most of the period. For many people the exhibition had the bonus of allowing them to see for the first time the improvements we have made to the old Mission Hall space - new entrance ramp, carpet, exhibition cabinet, lighting, new chairs, archive cupboards and more.

Dorothy commented: "We had 110 visitors signed in and there were many comments about the improved access and the general appearance of the hall. The display of books created interest with some people wondering where to get copies. There were a few youngsters around and the panels will be really useful in the future being accessible for them through the pictures. The spotlights worked really well to illuminate the screen arrangement. The new side-door makes the best use of space. So all in all there was input from a lot of people which made the exhibition a success."

The Covid pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of this years' Yetholm Border Shepherd's Show. The show was last cancelled during the foot-and-mouth crisis in 2001 - and before that during World Wars 1 and 2. Yetholm History Society, though, hosted our first talk since last February - on Tuesday 6th October Dinah Iredale gave a much appreciated lecture on the bondagers of north Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. Frustratingly this event took place in the Wauchope Hall, with everyone spread-out and wearing face-masks, despite the fact our own hall is now furnished with new chairs and state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment.
   Dinah had an abundance of images of bondagers to illustrate and structure her talk. Clearly bondagers were photogenic and their unusual costumes appealed to early camera wielding travellers. Dinah's fascinating photos dated from the 1870s up to the 1930s. It seems odd that there don't seem to be as many photographs of Border shepherds in their traditional costume - the black-and-white checked plaid, which was wrapped around the shoulders. It must have been an equally attractive costume to photograph, but for some reason the photographs seem much less plentiful. Do they exist in archives and are just waiting to be found? Or did the fashion fade away much earlier than that of the bondager - in which case, why?
   The earliest datable photographs of Yetholm Show date from around 1910 - a couple of them are shown here. None, however, show a shepherd sporting a plaid. Also shown are a couple of cuttings from the Jedburgh Gazette of the 16th October 1897, which reveal plans for a striking new competition - 'Best Dressed Hill Shepherd (Dressed as a Shepherd)'. The wording shows that the committee were not looking simply for a man dressed in smart contemporary clothes (as with those shown in the photographs), but men sporting a distinctive shepherd's costume - presumably including a plaid??? The fact that they even dreamt up such a competition perhaps suggests that they were sadly aware that such a traditional badge of the shepherding life was disappearing - and that they wanted to preserve it - ? Unfortunately we don't know if anyone entered the new competition - and if so how they were dressed and who won the 'finest stilton cheese' offered as a prize.

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS
Subsequent rummaging around in our photo archive has uncovered a shepherd wearing a plaid! See the image below. It is from a postcard labelled 'Yetholm Shepherds Show 1911. Sheep' - so it was taken at the same time as the image of sheep dogs shown above. In this case, again, most of the crowd are dressed in smart contemporary clothes, but one figure, standing with his back to camera, clearly has a plaid drooped over his shoulder - see if you can spot him (click on the image to see an exapnded version). So it looks like some shepherds continued to sport the traditional costume up until the First World War.

Dinah Iredale has also commented that "men at a hirings would wear a buttonhole 'decoration' plaited straw or a wisp of wool to declare their skills. Flat caps were worn but at hirings many wore bowler hats (This is all late 19th Century or early 20th Century)." Also that a "photograph I have of a hiring in Wooler which will be early 20th Century there is a shepherd wearing a plaid just at the edge of the photograph."