Dear all,
This might seem a somewhat strange request,
but please bear with me.
I represent ALGAO on DEFRA's Uplands
Land Management Advisory Panel. As such, I have been asked by another
member of the panel, namely Christopher Thomas-Everard (Chairman of the
National Beef Association), to check his facts regarding a paragraph he
has included in a letter to the Treasury:
"
The British are widely recognised
as beef eaters because they have been dependent for centuries on cattle
turning rank vegetation into their principal food. (Lambs were kept
for wool).
The British were famous in Roman
times for the quality and quantity of their cattle and Britons have been
eating beef since about 500,000 BC. Very large wild white Urus cattle
(skull found at Cottenham Fen) of the Palaeolithic (old stone age) and
Neolithic times (new stone age) (9,000 BC) were followed by the Bos primogenius
(skulls found at Bath and Tiverton, which became the wild White Park cattle
of Chillingham etc) and the smaller domesticated Bos longifrons (Celtic
short-horn) which became the modern British and Irish breeds of cattle
(Galloway and Dexter being the most similar). These cows provided
milk and the bullocks were slaughtered for meat. From the archaeological
remains of bones found at Danebury Hill Fort (550 BC to 100 AD), it has
been estimated that two-thirds of the meat eaten by Iron Age Britons was
beef. (The rest was 20% mutton and 10% pork).
"
Any and all comments, corrections, amendments
or suggestions very gratefully received - email me ([log in to unmask])
if you'd prefer.
Many thanks in advance - all the very
best,
Elaine
Elaine Willett
SHINE Coordinator / Rural Development Officer
ALGAO: England
Historic Environment Unit
Hertfordshire County Council
County Hall
Pegs Lane
Hertford
SG13 8DN
Mob: 07733 301615
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