Farmer Brown and his Sheep
Check out this maze and help Farmer Brown get his sheep to Meningie.
Baa Baa Brown’s Sheep
Did you know that many children’s nursery rhymes tell a story about real people and actual places from the past. These rhymes can be fun and sometimes silly, and still point to an important historical event.
Baa Baa black sheep
This little rhyme that many of us know is believed to tell us about an unfair tax that English farmers were made to pay when they sold their wool at the markets back in 1277, nearly 750 years ago.
Do you know the Poem?
Baa Baa black sheep
Have you any wool?
Yes sir’s, yes sir’s
Three bags full
One for the master
And one for the dame
And one for the little boy
Who lives down the lane.
In a very early version the poem read
“and none for the little boy
Crying down the lane”
See if you can work out the meaning of the poem now you know this.
Before these harsh taxes were introduced, the farmers who lived in England in the late 1200’s, that did all the work with the sheep, received only a part of the money that was made when they sold the wool at market.
The land owners and the church, the “master” and the “dame” had to receive some of the money from the sale, but now with a tax to be paid to the King, there might be nothing left for the “little boy” the farmer, so he would be “crying down the lane”.
It is fun to make up your own nursery rhymes that tell a story about a person or a place that is special to you. Brown’s Beach in Meningie is a place that is special. Here is a poem about it.
Baa Baa brown’s sheep
Have you come to stay?
No sir’s, we’re going sir’s
90 miles away.
We sailed up the river
And we paddled over the lake
To get to this little cove
So we could have a break.
What do you think this poem might be telling us about?
If we read about the history of sheep farming in South Australia back in the late 1800’s, nearly 180 years ago, we will meet a man called James Brown.
“AKA” “Farmer Brown”
He was a farmer who needed to find more land for his sheep to graze on. He and his companion Mr Newland, were living near Mount Compass and they wanted to find a way to get their sheep to Kingston. Instead of herding their sheep around the large lake called, Lake Alexandrina to begin the trip South, they decided to put their sheep into a whale boat and cross the very rough waters where the Murray River pours out into the Sea.
Wellington Ferry
Not long after these adventurous farmers ferried their sheep across the Murray River at its’ mouth a ferry, was regularly taking stock from one side of the Murray River to the other, just near Wellington.
