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In 1826 George Hall Peppin began an account book covering his farms of Old Shute and
Slade, several miles apart in the west of Dulverton parish. He was about 25 and his father
George had died in 1823. Old Shute was part of the Sydenham estate and George leased it from his mother Maria who was the tenant. George presumably inherited the freehold Slade farm as his father’s eldest son.
At first he recorded sowing, stocking, and livestock breeding. These memoranda form a calendar of the farming year in southern Exmoor. In March and April 1827 he sowed oats and barley. On the 22 April he turned out the cows and sheep including 179 ewes and lambs. He planted blue and red potatoes. In May the carthorses were put onto clover and the lambs were weaned. In June several varieties of turnip were sown. Hay was not cut until July. In August and early September 63 a. of rye, oats, barley, and wheat were harvested. Cutting a field of rye took four reapers, two binders, and two stitchers, including family members, and produced
510 stitches. In September and October wheat and rye were sown, the latter partly for seed and partly for spring fodder. In November and early December the sheep were turned into the turnip fields and beer was brewed. No further work was recorded until February, when he paid to put his sheep in another’s turnips. In March ale was brewed and the sowing of oats began again.
In 1827 rape and more varieties of turnip were sown and 42 apple trees were planted. In 1829 he planted 100 cauliflowers. Oxen, horses, sheep, cows, and pigs were kept. Throughout the year produce was sold including wheat to the labourers. The wage bill for 1827, including
Mary Suirat Page 1 Exmoor Reference

seasonal work by women or at harvest and the house servants, was c. £100 out of receipts of
£720. Livestock and lime were the biggest expense. George bred most of his animals and they generated most income. Meat killed on the farm between 1827 and 1833 comprised 50 sheep,
4 lambs, 2 calves, 33 pigs and 857 lb. of beef.
The accounts deteriorated after the first few years and George ceased to keep totals or a balance. He failed to record acreages sown or numbers of animals bought, sold or rented out.
In 1832 he sold 4 oxen for £56 and rented out his cows for £43. In 1834 he sold horses for
£30 each and his wool for over £50. By that date he had let most of Slade farm (87 a.) to the man who leased his cows and he was borrowing money to pay debts and his brother Henry. In
1840 his borrowing rose to £700 but the gross farm receipts were only £350. He retained Old
Shute (158 a.) and c. 42 a. at Slade. In 1844 he sold 954 lb. of wool, and bought additional ewes for under £1 and guano. In 1848 he sold 1,443 lb of wool, apparently two years produce, but borrowed £300 from Tiverton bank.
1
The mounting debts may have been the reason why in 1850 George, his wife, and two sons emigrated to Australia. There they succeeded in raising a breed of Merino sheep, which is still called the Peppin Merino. Today Old Shute is a farm of permanent pasture grazing sheep and cattle but the mid 19 th
-century farmyard retains a large bank threshing barn with roundhouse for horse gin, linhays, pigstyes and poultry house.
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1 SRO, DD/X/PPP 1.
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