Sheep farming during the late 14th century of England

Sheep farming was a big part of England’s economy during the late 14^th to 15^th century. Winchester was a huge sheep farming business during medieval times. Most the data of sheep farming during this time frame came from the Winchester estate that had roughly 20,000 sheep. The data comes for one estate so it is hard to relate it to the rest of England during the late 14th century.

Page, Mark. “The Technology of Medieval Sheep Farming: Some Evidence from Crawley, Hampshire, 1208-1349.” The Agricultural History Review, vol. 51, no. 2, 2003, pp. 137–154. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40275965.

Sheep farming suddenly took a decline and affect the whole economy. After the black death was done running terror through Europe, management had a different approach to wool prices and that was to keep prices low. Mostly people were poor at the time and could not afford high prices. Sheep were under feed during the late 14th century and 15th century because of the lack of food because of the black plague. Lambs were starved or stunt their growth and this had an affect on the wool industry. This caused the wool to not be as good quality and restricts the sheep from fighting diseases. The trend was that the overall sheep production was going down. In the past they got more weight of wool than they do now. Some managers still tried and give their sheep medicine or took them to a vet. All these can be small factors but small advances of technology limited managers in what they were able to do with their sheep. The idea of disease and climate could have had an impact on sheep farming but it was the managers’ decisions in the end that made all the difference.   

Most people low yields of wool were due to bad choices and using bad techniques because of the crumbling economy.  Climate was bad during the winter and created a short term problem. But the long term problem was created by the farms not reacting to the climate. Better management practices could have resulted in more production in sheep farming.

The national income was no longer depending on sheep farming to carry an economy. Grain productivity was raised a lot throughout parts of the country in decades before the Black Plague to feed the sheep. It helped feed the population of England as well as boost their economy.  It also showed how managers housed their sheep, how many sheep farmers owned to keep production up, and how the animals were feed.

 In conclusion it is important to note that the data comes from only one estate so it is hard to relate it to the rest of England during the late 14th century. England in the beginning was very dependent on the wool industry. It is how their economy survived during the medieval time. Once production was down they had to find a new way to keep the economy going. This made sheep farming going down and not many people did it anymore. People had to find new ways to provide for their families. Sheep farming was very important to late 14^th century England.