The drovers’ work was to drive thousands of cattle, pigs and sheep hundreds of miles to market in south-east and central England. During the AD 1700s, sheep were driven from Carmarthenshire to Essex to be fattened on the salt marshes before being sold in London. Cattle were driven into England in August and early September for St Bartholomew’s Fair at Smithfield and the markets of Gloucester, Oxford and Bristol.

Drovers had their own regular tracks away from towns, toll roads and other traffic. Ancient ridgeways were used to drive cattle from Pembrokeshire, through Carmarthenshire and the Tywi Valley to Llandovery – where the cattle were shod (essential for their long journey). Drovers and their herds travelled up to 16 miles a day and forded rivers or crossed by ferries. At night they stopped at inns with fields for grazing; many pubs called the Drovers’ Arms survive today. Droving was dangerous and exciting and some of the drovers were wild men.

Master drovers also carried letters, valuables and money (including rents to absentee landlords) between towns. It was drovers who established the first private banks in Carmarthenshire. They left money at home instead of carrying it with them, and ‘delivered’ it at the other end using money from the sale of their animals.