For some reason this hook just speaks to me, you can feel the history in this crook and can see it has had a long life. Must have served many shepherds of the years. Crooks were often handed down father to son throughout the generations.
Again made by the local blacksmith in his forge, even down to the hand forged rivet that holds the head to the shaft.
This is Romney Looker’s Crook, a traditional shepherd’s crook from the Rural Historia Collection. The crook is associated with the Romney Marsh area of Kent and East Sussex.
The name is slightly confusing because “looker” is an old Romney Marsh term for a shepherd. A man employed to watch over sheep grazing on the marsh was known as a looker, hence looker’s crook.
Romney Marsh developed a particularly strong shepherding tradition because huge numbers of Romney Marsh sheep were grazed across the open marshland. Lookers could be responsible for large flocks spread over considerable areas.
A Romney-type crook is generally associated with a large, relatively open barrel or loop. One reason given for this design is the method used by Romney shepherds to catch sheep: rather than exclusively catching a leg, the larger crook could be dropped around the neck of a sheep, particularly young or difficult animals.
