Encouraging the craft of crook making in Scotland since 1956

The history of stick making

The craft of stick making is very, very old. Carved sticks have been found in ancient tombs opened up in various countries, though the shepherd’s crook seems to be peculiarly British.

Half a century ago shepherds were almost certainly crook makers. We may reasonably assume that they always carried a stick of some sort, to aid their long uphill treks. A small branch at the end could have been shortened to catch a sheep round the neck, after which is was a natural step to take a curly rams horn found on the a hill and, after the roughest of shaping, attach it to the stick.

Shepherds cottages of those days were primitive affairs, often with nothing better than a paraffin lamp for lighting. This was barely sufficient for reading, yet adequate to carve a crook. It had the further advantage that heat from it could be used to bend the horn. In those days before wireless, television or a daily paper in outlying parts, mid-winter evenings must have seemed long indeed. The hill shepherd whiled away the time by whittling his crook.

Today things are very different. Shepherds still make their own sticks, but they have been joined by a great number for whom stick dressing is a fascinating hobby, a shaping of natural materials for use and ornament, combined. It is if you like a reaction to the mass production. One batch of plastic is exactly like the last in colour and texture; no two hazel or holly shanks are identical, and no two horns are alike after they have roamed the high hills of England, Scotland and Wales.

Each horn and each shank present a different problem. This is why evening classes are so popular, encouraging a hobby that helps many and hurts none.

The greatest men of our day have been amongst the many thousands fascinated by the endless variety of sticks and crooks. Sir Winston Churchill’s collection may be seen at Chartwell. Every country house has its selection and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ceremonial staff is a crook.

Shortage of horn is indeed a limiting factor, but wooden sticks are also most pleasing. 

The above is an extract from Shepherd’s Crooks and Walking Sticks, by David Grant and Edward Hart and used with kind permission.