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A Pyecombe hook is a distinctive 
Pyecombe village stands on an ancient drove road on the
shepherd's crook
A shepherd's crook is a long and sturdy stick with a hook at one end, often with the point flared outwards, used by a shepherd to manage and sometimes catch sheep. In addition, the crook may aid in defending against attack by predators. Whe ...
crafted in the old forge at the village of Pyecombe
Pyecombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The name 'Pyecombe' may derive from the Saxons, Saxon "pic" meaning point or pike, in which case it may mean "valley marked by a projecting hill".
Pyeco ...
in Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, England since the 19th century. The Pyecombe hook was perfectly balanced with a twist that allowed shepherd
A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...
s to easily catch the hind leg of a sheep without injuring the sheep. Its use is described by Charles Mitchell: “the curve is made so that the shepherd can hook it around the sheep’s leg, slide it up, give it a slight twist, and the sheep is caught fast without being in the least hurt.” It was often made out of old gun barrel
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure ...
s.
Pyecombe village stands on an ancient drove road on the South Downs
The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the east. ...
and has a long shepherding history. The Pyecombe hook was very popular amongst shepherds in Sussex for about 200 years. A surviving Pyecombe hook is integrated into the Tapsel gate
A Tapsel gate is a type of wooden gate, unique to the England, English county of Sussex, which has a central pivot upon which it can rotate through 90° in either direction before coming to a stop at two fixed points. It was named after a Sussex ...
at the entrance to the Churchyard of Pyecombe church. It is illustrated on the Pyecombe village sign. There is an example in the Sussex Archaeological Society's Museum at Lewes.
It was made in the first half of the 19th century by Mr Berry, the blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
, in the old forge
A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...
, now a private house, just opposite the entrance to the church. It continued to be made there by his successor, Mr Charles Mitchell, who owned the forge from 1872 to 1946. The church has a ceremonial Pyecombe hook made in 1946 by Mr Sean Black, the last blacksmith at the forge.
The hook is celebrated in song:-
{{block indent , text=THE PYECOMBE CROOK
Hefty of arm he hammered it out,
in clangour of forge and flame of fire;
Red it rolled on the anvil's bosom,
Bent and bowed to the smith's desire;
He laughed as he lifted it, laughed and sang
The song that is older than ink or pen:
"O well I know,
Who knows no book,
Where'er you go
Is never a crook,
Can better the crooks of the Pyecombe forge,
The crooks of the Pyecombe men."{{Cite news, url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001920/19250725/258/0023, title=The Pyecombe Crook, date=25 July 1925, work=Worthing Herald, page=23, via=British Newspaper Archive
References