The Bagot Goat – its history spanning 800 years

If ever a goat was an enigma, it is the Bagot Goat. It is neither a fibre goat nor a meat goat. It is, in fact, a rare breed species which, against all odds, has survived the centuries.

Here is its heartwarming story:

Author with rare-breed Bagot goat in England

The history of the Bagot goat is interlaced with images of knights on horseback, Kings and coats of arms, a story spanning 800 years where fact, legend and folklore are closely intertwined.

This rare and ancient breed, probably England’s oldest, survived for centuries under the protection of one aristocratic family. But later, because the breed was deemed to be of little intrinsic value, attempts were made to exterminate it.

By 1979 only 12 goats remained in the herd. Had it not been for the help of a dedicated group of enthusiasts the pure Bagot goat could have been lost forever.

When Richard the Lionheart returned from the Holy Land in 1194, the evil Prince John was Regent of England and Robin Hood and his Merry Men championed the poor from Sherwood Forest. This legend is well known. But almost unknown is the story that when Richard returned from the Crusades he brought back a few black headed goats from the Rhone Valley of Switzerland.

Two hundred years later, in 1380, a young King Richard 11, presented the herd of black and white goats to Sir John Bagot at Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire. These were released into Bagots Park, 800 acres of woodland on the edge of the great Needlewood Forest. Here beneath the majestic oaks the goats ran freely. With the Lord’s wild deer, they provided sport for the royal hunting parties and Bagot’s Park was their home for 600 years.

Joan Wanklyn, 1924–1999 - Goats at Blithfield Hall

For centuries legend and folklore allowed the long haired goat to live a protected life.  One story tells that long ago a poacher killed a Bagot goat and ate it. Immediately, he became very ill with a mysterious illness. After that the goats were untouched despite the poachers still stealing the Lord’s deer.

Unlike deer, by law, the goats were not classed as wild but, if the goats strayed onto local farmland, the Estate had to pay for any damage to the crops. It is said that the farmers may have encouraged the goats to escape onto their land in order to claim compensation.

In 1380, Sir John Bagot incorporated a goat’s head into the Bagot coat of arms. It became the family’s mascot. Sir John’s helmet, which rests in the Blithfield Church, has a goat’s head on the top of it. Displayed at Blithfield Hall is a magnificent set of goat horns. These measure almost 4 feet across.

Bagot family crest

But the legend, which closely unites the goats with the Bagot family from which they take their name, is that if ever the Bagot goat dies out, the House of Bagot will fall. This belief possibly ensured the survival of the breed.

Over the years the size of the herd fluctuated. As numbers increased some culling was done. In 1920 and 1954 a few Bagot bucks were sent to the Rhinog Mountains in Wales. Today some of the wild goats of the Rhinog have distinctive Bagot markings.

Swiss Blacknecked goat

But in 1939 it appeared that the fate of the Bagot herd was sealed. The Staffordshire Water Authority bought the Blithfield Estate. They planned to flood the old forest and grazing land to create a massive reservoir. Because the Bagot goat was considered to be of no commercial value, it was to be exterminated. Fortunately, with the outbreak of the Second World War construction of the reservoir was postponed but, the following year, the War Agriculture Executive issued the extermination order. Lord Bagot disputed this and the goats were given a reprieve, but the Court stipulated that the herd must not exceed sixty head.

At the end of the war, work on the reservoir resumed and in 1953 most of the land was flooded and the remaining forest was cleared for farming. The Water Authority had allowed the 5^th Lord Bagot to continue living in Blithfield Hall but the stately home had fallen into disrepair. When he died, the 6^th Lord and his wife, Australian born, Nancy Lady Bagot decided to buy it back together with some of the surrounding land. After considerable expense and extensive restoration, Blithfield Hall was opened to the public in 1956.

Of the hundred goats which had roamed the woodland, only twenty were kept. These were brought to the Hall by Lady Bagot. The remaining wild goats were caught and sold. A few went to private farms or zoos, others were killed. A group was sent to Hal Bagot, in Cumbria.

But the goats at Blithfield Hall were destined to live in a walled garden and small paddock near the house. Gone was the natural environment of the primeval forest. Their survival was in doubt and by 1979 only 12 goats remained. This gave the Bagot breed the dubious distinction of being, not only on the critical list of British endangered breeds, but featuring as the rarest of the rare breeds by the British Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Nancy Lady Bagot in 1952 in Coronation robes (www.bbc.com)

Nancy Lady Bagot felt she had no option but to entrust the remaining animals to the RBST in a hope that they would ensure the survival of the breed. Perhaps the old legend prompted her do this.

The Trust decided that the only way to protect the species was to increase their numbers as quickly as possible they embarked on a grading-up program using base stock of various breeds and crossing them with pure Bagots. After four crosses the goat was classed as pedigree. But a handful of enthusiasts could see that the true bloodline of the ancient breed was in danger of being lost.

The Bagot Goat Breeders Study Group was formed in 1987. Their aim was to promote the breed and maintain its integrity. Their approach was different to that taken by the Trust.

Over the previous 80 years culled animals had been relocated around England and Wales. It was to these sources of pure lines that the Bagot Study Group directed their attention. By tracing the history of the animals and selecting from the small closed herds, a breed register of pure stock was compiled.

In 1979 the Group converted to a full Breed Society affiliated to the British Goat Society. Today, thanks to the efforts of those enthusiasts, there are hundreds of registered Bagot goats. The secretary of the breed society said he doubted the Bagot goat would ever come close to extinction again.

Although there are no Bagot goats at Blithfield Hall today, a few years ago, Nancy Lady Bagot wrote, “I count myself very privileged to have known Bagots Park and to have seen the goats in their natural surroundings. It is very heartening that so many goat lovers are caring for these unique and historic animals.”

Nancy Lady Bagot was President of the Bagot Goat Breed Society. She died, aged 94, in 2014.

Seeking the truth behind the legend

Bigstock Photo

The story that the Bagot goat was brought to England from Switzerland hundreds of years ago, is not hard to believe when you consider the rare breeds which still roam the Alpine regions of Switzerland, Germany and Italy. 

The goats, which arrived at the time of the Crusades and came to be knows as Bagot goats, probably come from the Alps of southern Switzerland, north Italy and Austria.

Etching dated 1905

You only have to look at a Swiss Schwartzhal (Blacknecked or Wallis goat) of the Rhone Valley to recognize the colour markings and the horn structure to be convinced these animals were the likely source of the goats associated with King Richard.

To this day, black and white goats are found in the mountains of Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany.

 

Taken at the ''Bois de la Batie'', in Geneva, Switzerland. Permission={CC-by-sa-2.5}

The Valais Blackneck is found in the region of Valais, in southern Switzerland, and neighbouring areas of northern Italy. The largest concentration is in the area of Visp (Viège). At the end of 2013 the total numbers of goats of this type were a little over 3000 in Switzerland, with a few hundred in Italy plus only 100–300 head in Germany).

The Valais Blackneck is distinctively almost half black and half white. It is known by various names according to where it lives. In Germany it is the Walliser Schwarzhalsziege or Gletschergeiss; in France, Col Noir du Valais, Chèvre des Glaciers or Race de Viège; and in Italy, Vallesana or Vallese.

Post script

When I visited England from Australia several years ago, I happened across a handsome Bagot buck on a farm in the south and noted in my diary (see top picture): “What a magnificent animal. If I lived in England I would like to raise these rare breed goats”. It was not until later that I discovered just how rare it was. I first wrote about the Bagot Goat for The Goat Farmer magazine in 2000.
In 2014 I posted a blog about the the Bagot Goat and King Richard. This is a revised post. It contains updated material regarding the goat's origins and also some new pictures.)

In 2014, I published a Young Adult short story entitled King Richard and the Mountain Goat where fact and fiction have been melded together (author). 

Attributions:

Joan Wanklyn (1924–1999), painting of goats at Blithfield Hall as they would once have appeared. http://baggetthistory.com/herd.html 
Bigstock photo - 2 x stencils and goats in Alps. 
Goat of Unknown Race. Taken at the ''Bois de la Batie'', in Geneva, Switzerland.{CC-by-sa-2.5} 
See also http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Wallische_bok.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valais_Blackneck#/media/File:Wallische_bok.jpg (2 pics =+ etching)

Bagot Goats linked to Richard the Lionheart

The little known history of the Bagot goat is interlaced with images of knights on horseback, Kings and coats of arms, a story spanning 800 years where fact, legend and folklore are closely intertwined.

    This rare and ancient breed, probably England’s oldest, survived for centuries under the protection of one aristocratic family. However, half a century ago, because the breed was deemed to be of little intrinsic value, attempts were made to exterminate it. In 1979 only 12 goats remained in the herd. Without the help of a dedicated group of enthusiasts the pure Bagot goat and its intriguing story could have been lost forever.

 

Fact and folklore behind the legend

   When Richard the Lionheart returned from the Holy Land in 1194, the evil Prince John was Regent of England and Robin Hood and his Merry Men championed the poor of Sherwood Forest. This legend is well known. But almost unknown is that when Richard returned to England from the Crusades he brought back a few black headed goats reputedly to be from the Rhone Valley of Switzerland.

   Two hundred years later, in 1380, a young King Richard 11 presented the herd of black and white goats to Sir John Bagot at Blithfield Hall in Staffordshire. These were released into Bagots Park, 800 acres of woodland on the edge of the great Needlewood Forest. Here beneath the majestic oaks the goats ran freely. With the Lord’s wild deer, they provided sport for the royal hunting parties. This was their home for 600 years.

   For centuries legend and folklore allowed the long haired goat to live a protected life. One story tells that long ago a poacher killed a Bagot goat and ate it. Immediately, he fell ill with a mysterious illness. After that the goats were never touched despite the poachers still stealing the Lord’s deer.
   Unlike the deer, however, by law the goats were not classed as wild. If the goats strayed onto local farmland, the Estate had to pay for any damage to the crops. It is said the farmers may have encouraged the goats to escape onto their land in order to claim compensation.

   In 1380, Sir John incorporated a goat’s head into the Bagot coat of arms. It became the family’s mascot. Sir John’s helmet, which rests in the Blithfield Church, has a goat’s head on the top of it. Displayed at Blithfield Hall is a magnificent set of goat horns. These measure almost 4 feet across. But the legend, which closely unites the goats with the Bagot family from which they take their name, is that if ever the Bagot goat dies out, the House of Bagot will fall. This belief possibly ensured the survival of the breed.

   Over the years the size of the herd fluctuated. As numbers increased some culling was done. In 1920 and 1954 a few Bagot bucks were sent to the Rhinog Mountains in Wales. Today some of the wild goats of the Rhinog have distinctive Bagot markings.

   By 1939 it appeared that the fate of the Bagot herd was sealed. The Staffordshire Water Authority bought the Blithfield Estate. The old forest and grazing land was to be drowned to become a massive reservoir. The Bagot goat was considered to be of no commercial value and was to be exterminated. Fortunately, with the outbreak of the Second World War construction of the reservoir was postponed. The following year, the War Agriculture Executive issued the extermination order. Lord Bagot disputed this and the goats were given a reprieve, but the Court stipulated that the herd must not exceed 60.

   At the end of the war, work on the reservoir resumed and in 1953 most of the land was flooded. The remaining forest was cleared for farming. The Water Authority had allowed the 5^th Lord Bagot to continue living in Blithfield Hall but the stately home had fallen into disrepair. When he died, the 6^th Lord and his wife, Nancy Lady Bagot decided to buy it back together with some of the surrounding land. After considerable expense and extensive restoration, Blithfield Hall was opened to the public in 1956.

   Of the hundred goats which had roamed the woodland, only twenty were kept. These were brought to the Hall by Nancy Lady Bagot. The remaining wild goats were caught and sold. A few went to private farms or zoos, others were killed. A group was sent to Hal Bagot, in Cumbria.

   But the Estate's goats were destined to live in a walled garden and small paddock near the house. Gone was the natural cover of the primeval forest. By 1979 only 12 goats remained and their survival was in doubt. This gave the Bagot breed the dubious distinction of being, not only on the critical list of British endangered breeds, but featuring as the rarest of the rare breeds by the British Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
   Nancy Baroness Bagot felt she had no option but to entrust the remaining animals to the RBST in a hope that they would ensure the survival of the breed. Perhaps the old legend prompted her do this.  The Trust decided the only way to protect the species was to increase their numbers as quickly as possible so embarked on a grading-up program using base stock of various breeds and crossing them with pure Bagots. But a handful of enthusiasts could see that the true bloodline of the ancient breed was in danger of being lost. 
  As a result, the Bagot Goat Breeders Study Group was formed in 1987. Their aim was to promote the breed and maintain its integrity. Their approach was different to that taken by the Trust. Over the previous 80 years culled animals had been relocated around England and Wales. It was to these sources of pure lines that the Study Group directed their attention. By tracing the history of the animals and selecting from the small closed herds, a breed register of pure stock was compiled. As a result of the hard work undertaken by dedicated enthusiasts, hopefully the Bagot goat will never come close to extinction again.      

   Although there are no Bagot goats at Blithfield Hall today, Nancy Baroness Bagot wrote, “I count myself very privileged to have known Bagots Park and to have seen the goats in their natural surroundings. It is very heartening that so many goat lovers are caring for these unique and historic animals.”

   Nancy Baroness Bagot who was Honorary President of the Bagot Goat Society for many years passed away in 2014. 

 Note: When I visited England several years ago I came across a handsome Bagot buck on a farm in the south. I noted in my diary “What a magnificent animal”. Last year, I published a short story for boys, ‘King Richard and the Mountain Goat,’ – a purely fictitious tale based on the myth surrounding the Bagot breed.

Note 2: This article by Margaret Muir was first published in The Goat Farmer Magazine – June 2000   
For more information about Bagot Goats go to : http://bagotgoatsociety.co.uk/

Punishment according to the Laws of the Sea

"Every such person…shall suffer death."
Horrific and cruel laws relating to all seamen dates back centuries and many of those regulations remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

The first laws affecting seamen were prepared by Richard the Lionheart when he headed off, by ship, on his first Crusade. The Ordinance or Usages of the Sea of Richard 1 was recorded in the 13th century. According to these regulations:

He who kills a man on shipboard, shall be bound to the dead man, and thrown into the sea; if the man is killed on shore, the slayer shall be bound to the dead body and buried with it.
Anyone convicted by lawful witness of having drawn his knife to strike another, or who shall have drawn blood of him, he is to lose his hand.
Anyone convicted of theft shall be shorn …; boiling pitch shall be poured on his head and he shall be set ashore at the first land the ship touches.

From this early set of ordinances, the Black Book of the Admiralty emerged in the 15th century.
The punishment, according to the Black Book, for the first offense of sleeping on watch, was mild. The sailor suffered a bucket of sea-water to be poured over his head. But if caught for a fourth time, the punishment usually proved fatal.
The offender was slung in a covered basket hung below the bowsprit. Within this prison he had a loaf of bread, a mug of ale and a sharp knife. An armed sentry ensured that he did not return aboard if he managed to escape from the basket. Two alternatives remained – starve to death or cut himself adrift to drown in the sea.

The Articles of War, formalized by an Act of Parliament in 1661, were based on this old Admiralty code of discipline and apart from some amendments made in the 18th century much of the content, and the brutal punishments they carried, remained the same throughout the age-of-sail.
As readers of nautical fiction are aware, the penalty for many minor misdemeanours, as well as serious offenses, carried the death penalty. Crimes ranged from abusive behaviour, negligence of duty, disobeying orders and mutiny, and the Articles of War applied equally to the lowliest ship’s boy as to the senior naval officers. Every man aboard ship was reminded of them on a regular basis – usually on a Sunday following the public Worship of God Almighty, which was also stipulated in the Articles.
While crimes and subsequent punishments at sea seemed exceedingly harsh, in 1800, the courts in England listed hundreds of minor offenses that were punishable by death. Crimes ranged from common assault, to burglarizing, to stealing a loaf of bread. For the lucky ones – mostly young males, a plea for clemency resulted in the sentence being commuted to transportation to the colonies – over the seas and beyond the seas. However, for some, enduring years of depravity in chains and subjected to the lash, resulted in a lingering death.

On land, death at the end of a rope usually came as the result of asphyxia. With a short drop through the trap door (the long drop was not introduced till later), the noose tightened but failed to separate the vertebrae, failed to cut off the blood supply and therefore failed to cause unconsciousness. Depending on where the rope was placed around the man’s neck, the victim gasped for breath as his neck muscles attempted to protect his windpipe from being crushed and the root of his tongue being forced further up his throat.
Writhing in mental, if not physical agony, it could take up to half-an-hour before a man was declared dead. Hence the body was left dangling for that time to ensure the hangman had done his job satisfactorily. It was not unknown, on land, for friends of a condemned man, or members of his family, to leap forward and pull down on his feet in order to tighten the noose and hasten his demise.

At sea, the most common punishment for a man sentenced to suffer death was to be hung from one of the upper yards. This was done by reeving a sturdy rope through a block on the end of a yardarm. After his hands were tied behind his back and his ankles lashed together, the condemned man was then blindfolded or hoodwinked and a noose placed around his neck. The slack on the other end of the rope was taken up by a dozen men – often the worst types on board, and when the signal was given, the drums rolled, a gun was fired and the line was hauled lifting the condemned man from the deck and up into the rigging. Once aloft, the signal was given to belay hauling and secure the line to a pin on the rail.

With the body jerking, the face livid, the eyes and the tongue protruding, the assembled ship’s company continued to observe until the writhing stopped. However, to make sure the man was dead, his body remained hanging in the rigging for half-an-hour before it was lowered to the deck. After examination by the ship’s doctor, confirmation of death was pronounced.
But hangings were not a punishment which could be meted out by a single captain. For crimes which carried the death penalty a Punishment Warrant from the Admiralty or a Court Martial had to be convened. Without this body of senior officers to hear the case, captains were limited in the punishments they could deliver aboard their ships. Floggings, therefore, were a common form of shipboard punishment.

During the Nelson era, according to Admiralty regulations, one dozen strokes of the cat o’ nine tails was the maximum that could be given. Some captains appear to have ignored this ruling, while others were loath to flog their men arguing that it bred hatred and did not foster respect.
The barbaric sentence of being flogged around the fleet could only be delivered by a Court Martial. The result of such a cruel punishment was tantamount to a death sentence, plus it guaranteed a far more painful death than the short drop from the gallows.
When a man was sentenced to such a punishment, he was delivered into a ship’s boat in which a frame had been erected. With his hands and feet lashed to the frame, the victim was rowed to every ship of the fleet where a Bosun’s mate would inflict the prescribed number of lashes. The addition of a left-handed flagellator, approved by some sadistic captains, created a criss-cross pattern of stripes drawn by the leather thongs on the victim’s back.

The doctor, attending the proceedings in the boat, was not on hand to halt the punishment, but to advise if and when the man was dead. In some cases the floggings were continued on a lifeless corpse.
A speedy and far less painful exit from this life could be achieved when sentenced to death by shooting. One such sentence was carried out in 1757. The findings of a British Court Martial determined that Admiral John Byng, while serving in the Mediterranean, had contravened one of the Articles of War. He was accused of failing ‘to do his utmost’ to defend and hold the port of Minorca, which, as a result, was taken by the French. Byng’s argument, that his fleet had been poorly supplied by the Admiralty and was under-manned, was ignored and pleas for clemency were rejected by King George ll.
Admiral Byng was taken aboard HMS Monarch in the Solent, and in front of his own men and the company of other ships, he knelt on the quarterdeck and was summarily executed by a firing squad.
Byng’s only consolation was that this mode of punishment provided him with a quick death, whereas men put ashore on a deserted island or cast adrift in an open boat faced a lingering death – death from exposure, thirst, starvation, and eventual madness. The events surrounding the life of Alexander Selkirk were famously fictionalized by Daniel Defoe in his book Robinson Crusoe. Cast ashore, after arguing with the captain, on Juan Fernandez Island in the Pacific Ocean, Selkirk did not die, as most expected, but survived alone for several years.

In other circumstances, when sailors found themselves adrift following the sinking of their ship, the survivors adopted the role of judge and jury, and passed sentence on the first unlucky victim who was to be slaughtered and eaten. Cannibalisation is not uncommon in the annals of history and if survivors were eventually found, their only defence was to quote the unwritten law of the sea. In his book, The Custom of the Sea, Neil Hanson quotes dozens of recorded incidences of cannibalism.

Finally, the most diabolical sentence handed out aboard ships of various nations was keel hauling. While it was not a death sentence per-se, it invariably resulted in the sailor’s relatively quick but cruelly painful demise. Rigged on a line that was run below the ship’s keel, the victim’s hands and feet were tied. The rope around his chest tightened as a group of sailors hauled him from the deck, dropped him into the water and pulled him under the vessel.

As he was dragged across the barnacle-encrusted hull, the razor-sharp shells ripped the skin from his face, arms and body. The more months the ship had been at sea, since its bottom had been scraped, the more lethal the punishment it provided. If the victim did not drown in the process, he did not survive long from his shocking injuries.
Keel hauling, in the Royal Navy, was discontinued in 1720 but continued until 1750 in some other European navies.

For any man who would suffer death at sea, death on the gun deck from an enemy’s broadside was a far sweeter alternative to being punished according to the Royal Navy’s Articles of War, which changed little over the centuries.