It is probably true that the Bagot Goat is among one of the oldest breeds of goats in Britain to-day, although usually one of the least known.  It can be traced back in history to around the late 1380’s with comparative ease and the goats ran semi wild at Blithfield, Staffordshire for some 600 years.  The goats lived in Bagots Wood and Park which was in fact some miles across the estate away from Blithfield Hall.

To give you some idea of the size of the Blithfield Estate in those times, it consisted of about 5000 acres, split up into about 2000 acres of woodland and 1000 acres of park land.  The remainder was mostly farm land of some sort or another.  It is also known that unlike the deer the goats were not classed as truly wild because when any of the goats got out of the fenced area and did damage to local farm crops, then the Hall had to pay compensation for the damage they did.  No doubt in times long ago the goats were helped to get out on occasions, in order to get more compensation paid.  The actual numbers of goats on the Blithfield estate varied through the ages.  It is known from documentation that in 1710 for instance, the Hall had to reduce the number of goats on the estate in the interests of agriculture.  Again in 1938 there was over 100 in the herd and they were again reduced in numbers.  It is also known that in the Second World War, there was an extermination order placed on the whole herd by the War Agriculture Executive because of the damage they were doing to crops along with the deer.  The goat numbers at that time were above 80 and the then Lord Bagot fought this order and got it altered, but had to agree not to let the herd number exceed 60.  This level was kept at 60 by culling until 1947, after which the herd was allowed to increase yet again.  It is known that in 1954 the number was up to around 80 again.  In 1954 some Blithfield stock was sent to other large country Parks.

In 1954 some male Bagot stock was released on to the RHINOG mountains in Wales.  This may be in part why some of the wild goats that are there to-day, have Bagot type markings.  Around this time in 1957 the Blithfield goats fate was about to be sealed once and for all as the estate was sold and the goats had to go.  Some were sent to Halls and Zoo's and some we are told went to private individuals.  Many just went for dog meat no doubt.  Lady Nancy Bagot bought 20 of the surviving goats back to the Hall in 1962, as the Hall was open to the public at that time (see picture below).  It was these goats, that were later sent to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) in 1979 for safe keeping.  There are sadly no goats left at Blithfield today, however there are still many in the UK, scattered in small herds, which will help to ensure that they will survive and the determination of the breeders will hopefully see the breed going from strength to strength.

It has been always understood that the Bagot goat should have a black front and white back and it was understood that any miss marked goats would have been shot by the keepers.  However photographs of the old Blithfield herd (see below) show this to be completely untrue, as the markings of these goats are very little different from the present day goats

People also say that the Bagot is nothing like the Schwartzhal goat in Switzerland as we see it to-day.  This is perfectly true, the reason is that the Schwartzhal, almost like the Bagot nearly died out years ago.  It was saved by a few dedicated breeders who bred what you see in Switzerland to day.  There are plenty of old photographs of Schwartzhal goats in the 1900’s in the Zermat district, which look exactly colourwise like to-days Bagot.

It is also said that the Welsh ferals look like the Bagot so they must be descended from these.  Again there is adequate documentation to prove that Bagot males from the Blithfield herd were taken and let loose on the RHINOG mountains in 1920 and again in the 1950’s.  The RHINOG goats are again to-day different to any of the other Welsh ferals as the black and white is more regular and they are much smaller in build also.  If you look at them more closely, they are much stronger build to a Bagot with a broader face also nearly double the body weight, size for size. The other big difference is in horn pattern of the feral males who have got fantastic spreading horns some of which we know to be around three to four feet spread from tip to tip.  There are similar and even larger ones hanging at Blithfield Hall to-day (see below) with over five foot spread of olden day Bagots from the Park but there are very few present day Bagots with this pattern of horns.

It is interesting that at various times through out the Bagot goats long history there have been major culls of stock for various reasons.  There has never been a systematic year by year cull for colour as was once thought.  Culls were undertaken at approximately ten year intervals and it is documented that they were often for totally different reasons.