These are links to different web site content
Paintings, Prints and Drawings
Film
Photographs
Written Descriptions
Paintings, Prints and Drawings
Sheepwashing by Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841)
This painting was based on sketches that Wilkie made around 1815 during a retreat to the Wiltshire countryside from his permanent home in London. It is believed to show a scene at Fisherton Delamere, near Salisbury. Shortly before the painting was exhibited at the British Institution in 1817
Study for the painting
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/study-for-sheepwashing
Painting itself
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5573
Sheep Washing by Edward Francis Finden (1791 – 1857)
Published 1839 After Sir David Wilkie
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/29388/sheep-washing
Sheep Washing, Windsor (Windsor Castle from Salt Hill) Sir Frank Short 1890
From Turner sketch
Sheep Washing, Wellburn, Yorkshire by Joseph Wrightson MacIntyre (1842–1897)
Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Pool in river with large trees on either bank.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/sheep-washing-wellburn-yorkshire-18589
Farmers washing sheep at Wasdale Head
from a 19th century illustration. Interesting as it shows hurdles rather than a stone built fold.
Washing sheep in a river 1846.
Print showing hurdles on the bank and in the river to control the flock
https://www.prints-online.com/sheep-washing-1846-615379.html
Preparing for sheepwashing. Frederick Hall (1860-1948)
Bury Art Museum Painted c1935
Two men making a wash dub using hurdles in the river with pens made from hurdles behind them on the bank. Sheepdog sitting and watching
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/preparing-for-sheep-washing-164197
Drawing of complex washpool and channel
Complex set up with water being diverted from the beck into a stone built wash pool using a wooden launder. Man standing in wooden dry section washing sheep before they are carried down a built channel parallel to the beck.
https://www.ridgesandfurrowstrail.org/bill-goodnand-washdyke/
Film
Sheep washing 1899
More a sheep dunk than a sheep dip – its sink or swim for this flock. The arrival of the film camera in the mid 1890s captured farming methods that were much older. The filmmaker here was Cockermouth draper William Henry Youdale, who had many hobbies, including oil painting rural scenes. After he acquired a film camera we are fortunate that he again turned his eye to the countryside, as an alternative to the more common urban scenes.
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-sheep-washing-1899-online
Photographs
Photo 1900s
Sheep washing at Washbrook, Sutton-under-Brailes in the 1900s. Use of hurdles and sluice gate to control the depth of the pool
https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/sutton-under-brailes-sheep-washing
Photo c1906
Photos of sheepwashing at Benson Lock – well down the page. Try Ctrl F and put sheep in the search box.
https://thames.me.uk/s01340.htm
Photo c1906
Washing Southdown sheep at Angmering, Sussex. Woven hurdles appear to to have created apen and an artificial channel for the washing.
Photo c1908
Sheep washing in Sussex in a deep-cut channel. Men either side in barrels sunk in the stream are washing the sheep.
https://www.sussexpictures.co.uk/sheep-washing-river-arun-peppering-farm-7192737.html#scrolltoinfo
Photo c1908
Sheep washing at Airton near Skipton, Yorkshire. Washfold is on riverbank between Bridge and lane leading into a ford.
https://www.midlandspubs.co.uk/photography/yorkshire/enlargements/airton-sheep-washing.htm
Photo c1910
Washing sheep at Hutton-le-Hole in Ryedale Yorkshire. Two men standing on bank with long poles.
https://www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk/collection/farming/
Photo c1930
Sheepwashing, Hope Valley The photographer’s original notes read ‘Bath Night for Thousands of Moorland Sheep’ and ‘Under a new Government order, thousands of Derbyshire Moorland sheep are to take a bath. Hope valley being chosen for the operations. Photo taken today shows the start of the work,
https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ptpd300049/posterid/ptpd300049.html
Photo Undated
Titled “A Cold Job” by the photographer. Undated but in the Via Gellia, near matlock in Derbyshire
https://picturethepast.org.uk/image-library/image-details/poster/ptpd300050/posterid/ptpd300050.html
Photo 1947
Sheep being washed one at a time in a fenced off section of lake in Sussex
Photo 1951
Grace Robertson – Sheep washing in Wales. This looks to have been sheared already.
http://www.artnet.com/artists/grace-robertson/sheep-washing-in-wales-E0sp-69CvBqfc-CROuQMYw2
Written descriptions
Article about the shepherd’s life
Dorset Life magazine of October 2010
https://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2010/10/part-of-the-madding-crowd/
Sheepwashing before WW2
Interesting and detailed description of the sheep washing in Lincolnshire.
https://www.ridgesandfurrowstrail.org/bill-goodnand-washdyke/