sheep creep en · NOUN
Etymology
From sheep + creep.
Meanings
-
A small, low opening built into the base of a drystone wall or farm boundary; it allows sheep and lambs to pass freely between fields while blocking larger livestock like cows.
The typology of walls permits us to strip off — layer by layer — the succession of changes made to Roystone over the past six millennia. by plotting the gates, tracks, stiles and sheep-creeps too we can begin to build up a picture of how the modern landscape has been shaped. Walls were employed in different ways at different stages in the history of Roystone.
1995, Kevin Greene, Archaeology, an introduction : the history, principles, and methods of modern archaeology, page 52:Many field walls also contain sheep creeps, small rectangular openings at ground level which can be easily blocked, designed to manage the movement of animals between fields, particularly for access to water.
2002, Robert White, The Yorkshire Dales: a Landscape Through Time, page 74:Because practicality is an essential element of Irish farming practices and because drystone walls must naturally be pierced by openings to allow for free and flexible movement of livestock, sheep creeps became common place. [...] Although sheep creeps are so common that they can be seen all over the Oughterard area unfortunately they are rarely in traditional use anymore, many being blocked up with stone and all but forgotten.
2013, Paul Gibbons, “Sheep Creeps”, in Oughterard Heritage:Unlike the march-dykes, it is clearly a sheep dyke with "sheep-creeps" that can be opened or blocked off as required.
2013, Waddell, Gordon, Highland roots : the real story of one highland cottage:The Self Sufficient Farmer: While modern fences use gates, traditional British stone walls featured “sheep creeps,” or holes in the bottom of the fence tall enough for a sheep to pass through, which could then be closed with a block of wood or a few more stones that could easily be removed without taking down the whole fence.
2021, Adams Media, “Chapter 15 Fencing”, in Bushcraft and Survival Guides:Sheep-creeps are low, square openings in drystone walls that let sheep in but keep cattle out.
2017, LLOYD, JOHN. HARKIN, JAMES. MILLER, ANNE, 1,423 QI FACTS TO BOWL YOU OVER:I knew a cunning old gamekeeper in Yorkshire who used to frustrate the efforts of people who practised this kind of poaching by what he called "mistetching" the Hares on his beat every autumn. He netted as many of them as he could himself, and then turned them loose again. The consequence was that a Hare that had once struggled within the meshes of a net would rarely go through a gateway or sheep-creep (a hole in a stone wall to let sheep through from one field to another_ unless absolutely forced to do so by an exceedingly swift dog. I have seen a Hare which this man had had in a net leap a stone fence quite dix feet high.
1898, Richard Keaton, “Frustrating the Poachers”, in With nature and a camera; being the adventures and observations of a field naturalist and an animal photographer, page 175:Hares are also snared and trapped. I used to know an old man in whose blood the poaching instinct ran so strongly that, though reduced almost to ineptitude by age and infirmity, he would persist in trying to trap hares in “sheep creeps” (holes in stone walls to let sheep through from one field to another) and watercourse holes.
1895, Cassell and Company, “THE POACHER AND HIS CRAFT”, in Cassell’s Family Magazine Vol. 21 1895, page 804:Separate feeding of lambs apart from the adult sheep can be arranged by making an enclosure of special hurdles which have holes in them just large enough to let lambs through, but not sheep. These holes are called lamb, or sheep-creeps. They can be adjusted to the size of the lambs and have wooden rollers on the top and sides to let animals through easily. In this way feeding can be rationed, giving the lambs the best grazing land a day ahead of the sheep.
1973, Heather Angel, AA Book of the British Countryside, page 413:Making walls without the aid of mortar is a highly skilled task requiring careful selection of the right size and shape of block for maximum stability. Square openings, known as "sheep-creeps," are often left in the base of the wall to let livestock pass through.
1999, Unattributed, The encyclopedia of Britain, page 273:The animal population of the West Highlands had to receive special consideration. No few than 200 creeps were built, ranging from simple wooden sheep-creeps 4 ft wide, to plate girder cattle-creeps
1914, John Thomas, The West Highland Railway:Headstone of medieval sheep creep re-used in a wall at Dale Head Farm, Bishopdale
2003, T.G. Manby, Steven Moorhouse and Patrick Ottaway (ed. by), The Archeology of Yorkshire. An Assessment at the Beginning of the 21st Century, page 350:Post-medieval use of upland moors for grazing has produced its own distinctive archaeology, including sheep folds, pens, shelters, sheep creeps through walls on semi-enclosed moorland, and shielings and summer residences for seasonal use.
1987, Darvill, Timothy, Ancient monuments in the countryside, page 155:With a mixture of short texts and pen and ink illustrations, it tells about historical features, houses where the famous lived, country crafts including how to make stone walls without mortar, and where to see wild animals and flowers, and descriptions of unusual items like a sheep creep or a bee hole. The book is intended to make a child look, find out, and record with drawings, words, and postcards.
1971, Betty Jerman, “About the Family”, in The Guardian , 1971, UK, English, page 9:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| sheep creeps | Number=Plur | lexicographic |