Banging Heads together

A walk this afternoon through Levens Park. The house and park is in the ownership of the. Bagot family.

The River Kent flows through the park, which means that a circular walk is a bit more complicated. To cross the river we had to walk beyond the park almost to the village of Sedgwick.

J did very well, and was pleased she had been able to complete the walk.

Over the years we have walked across all sorts of terrain, and seen all sorts of things, but there is still room for a first. And today that was finding our way blocked by a large herd of goats. I can confirm that goats act very differently to sheep, and hold their ground, so we went around them. Some of the billies were very feisty (the blip is two of them testing each other out) and I thought it wise not to upset the mums by going too close to their kids.

We knew that these were Bagot Goats, a rare breed with only 200 or so breeding females in existence. A significant proportion of those were in the herd. The first record of these goats was in the 13th century when King Richard I1 gifted a herd to John Bagot of Blithfield in Staffordshire after enjoying the hunting on his estate. The goats are small, not great milk or meat producers, and not with the best of fleeces, but they are an ancient breed and hopefully will continue to survive.