The Suffolk Sheep Society silver medal
Frederick Elkington (1826 - 1905)
Category
Coins and medals
Date
c. 1886
Materials
Silver
Measurements
6 mm (Height); 47 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 849220
Summary
Medal, silver; The Suffolk Sheep Society medal; Elkington & Co., London; c. 1886. A group of eight Suffolk Sheep Society medals. The Suffolk sheep was first formally recognized as a distinct breed in 1859. Long valued for its fast growth and the quality of its meat, it is today the leading breed of sheep in Britain and Ireland and also farmed all over the world. The Suffolk Sheep Society was established in 1886 with the aims of developing and promoting the breed. Frederick William Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol (1834-1907) was the first President of the Society and an enthusiastic breeder on his estates in and around Ickworth. The Suffolk Sheep Society medal was presented to competition winners at agricultural shows throughout the county over many decades. The eight silver medals at Ickworth are probably therefore prizes won by Lord Bristol. The Suffolk Sheep Society continues to flourish to this day.
Full description
A silver medal of the Suffolk Sheep. On the obverse is a castellated gatehouse with twin towers and a central entrance with portcullis. The towers have domed roofs from which fly flags. Above the gate is an heraldic lion rampant. On the reverse a fully-fleeced sheep standing on a sward of grass. Inscriptions: on obverse: SUFFOLK. SHEEP. SOCIETY / INCORPORATED 1886; on reverse, below sheep: ELKINGTON & CO LONDON This group of eight identical silver medals probably represents competition prizes awarded to Frederick William Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol (1834-1907) during the two decades from the establishment of the Suffolk Sheep Society in 1886. The Society awarded medals in both gold and silver as competition prizes over many decades. One of Britain’s oldest domestic breeds, the roots of the Suffolk sheep breed go back to the late eighteenth century. They were first mentioned in print in 1797, in Arthur Young’s General view of agriculture in the county of Suffolk, when the breed was still called Norfolk. Young however wrote that ‘as the most famous flocks are about Bury (much more celebrated than any in Norfolk), it has been observed that they ought rather to be called the Suffolk breed. This race is so well-known, that it would be useless to give a particular description of them; it is, however, proper here, to note their principal excellencies and defects. Among the former is the quality of the mutton, it being admitted at Smithfield that … it has for the table of the curious, no superior in texture or grain, flavour, quantity and colour of gravy, with fat enough for such tables. In tallow, they reckon no sheep better.’ (Young 1797, pp. 209-10). Young went on to praise the breed’s wool, its hardiness and the ewes’ attentiveness to their young, before listing some of his criticisms, including their ‘voracity’ and ‘a restless and unquiet disposition.’ The Suffolk breed evolved from the mating of Norfolk Horn ewes with Southdown rams in the Bury St Edmunds area. These sheep were at first known as Southdown Norfolks or around Bury as “Black faces”, in reference to the black fur on the animal’s head and legs. The breed developed around the rotational system of farming in East Anglia, so that in the summer the sheep would graze on grass or clover whilst, after weaning, the ewes could be put on salt marshes or stubble fields. In the winter the sheep Swedes were grazed on turnips or mangels, with a fresh area of the field fenced off each day. Lambing would take place in February or March, outdoors in the fields with a hurdle shelter or in open yards surrounded by hurdles and straw. Since the establishment of the Suffolk Sheep Society, the breed expanded rapidly, firstly through Britain and Ireland and subsequently across the world. The Suffolk remains to this day the flag-ship breed in the UK and Ireland and the leading domestic terminal sire breed (i.e. the ram’s progeny is bred exclusively for fatting and slaughter). The Suffolk’s rapid growth means that Suffolk lambs are ready for market earlier or can be more quickly fattened to produce heavier carcase weights. The breed was first formally given the name ‘Suffolk’ in 1859, when the Suffolk Show that year ran the first classes to exhibit Suffolk sheep. In 1886 the Suffolk Sheep Society was formed, with the 3rd Marquess of Bristol as its first President. It continues to flourish to this day. Lord Bristol served as president for no less than 25 years, until 1901. In recognition of his service to the Society and the breed, a gold version of the Suffolk Sheep Society medal, enlarged to contain space for an inscription (NT 852840), was presented to Lord Bristol on 23 May 1920, together with a sumptuous illuminated address (NT 851690). The Society published its first flock book in 1887. This listed 46 flocks, most of them in Suffolk but a few in other parts of East Anglia, ranging in size from 50 to 1,100 ewes with an average number of 314. Lord Bristol’s ‘Tuddenham Flock’, established in 1872 and consisting in 1887 of 300 ewes and 7 rams, was the first to be listed in the stock book. Lord Bristol was an enthusiastic promoter of the breed, winning several prizes at the Smithfield agricultural show in London, for which he received silver medals of the Smithfield Club (NT 849222.1-4). Lord Bristol also won gold and silver medals at the agricultural show attached to the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris (NT 849226 and 849223). In an article in 1885 in the Bury and Norwich Post (‘The Suffolk Sheep’, 25 August 1885), the 3rd Marquess was praised for his support for the breed: ‘Many of our landowners have freely patronised Suffolk sheep. The Marquis of Bristol especially has taken great interest in them. His Lordship’s ewes obtained first honours at the recent show of the Bath and West of England Society in Brighton, while he has been very successful at the exhibitions of the Smithfield Club and county shows.’ The article, by ‘Ovis’, lauded the progress that had been made more generally by Suffolk farmers and breeders in developing county breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and pigs. The Suffolk Sheep Society medals were made by the long-established form of Elkington and Co. A silver manufacturer established in Birmingham in the 1830s, Elkington is best-known for its leading role in the nineteenth-century revolution in electroplating and electrotyping, but also made objects, such as the Suffolk Sheep Society medals, using more conventional technologies. The obverse with its gatehouse appears to be heraldic but the precise source of the imagery has to be identified. Unlike other agricultural society medals, such as those of the Smithfield Club, in which winners’ names were engraved on the rim, Suffolk Sheep Society medals appear to have been presented without inscriptions. Jeremy Warren November 2025
Provenance
Presumably awarded to Frederick William Hervey, 3rd Marquess of Bristol (1834-1907) and by descent, as part of the Bristol Collection. Acquired by the National Trust in 1956 under the auspices of the National Land Fund, later the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Makers and roles
Frederick Elkington (1826 - 1905), minter
References
Young 1797: Arthur Young, ‘General view of agriculture in the county of Suffolk’, London 1797