John Attrill on Sheep

Thinking back to the old days, there used to be … all sheared by hand shearers and I always had an admiration for them ‘cos there were about four shearers would come and they were the Brighstone gang and they would  turn up on their push bikes at about half past six or seven in the morning and have a cup of tea and think about it and start shearing about eight and  they’d go on shearing all day until probably six o’clock I suppose and then cycle back home to Brighstone  and if they hadn’t finished, they’d be back the next morning early so I think they were tough chaps.

Trying to think … I’ve done hand shearing in my time.

I remember the first one I sheared, my instructor looked at it because it was quite ridgy, he said, “You’ll know that one all the summer” only he didn’t say that one, he said something slightly stronger (laughs).