and Norfolks 144, 145
and Texel 234
New Zealand
Corriedale 39, 185
Dorsets 177
Polwarth 39
scrapie 148
sheepdogs 203
slaughter 228, 230
Norfolk Horn Sheep 48, 108, 139–45, 147, 153–6
North Country Cheviot Sheep 98–9, 129
North Ronaldsay 3–11, 203
Northumberland 111, 113
Norway 228
O
Odhar, Coinneach 91, 101
Offa, King of Mercia 27
Old English Sheepdog 14, 202
Orkney Sheep 12, 16
Outhwaite, Richard 116–17
Owen, Iolo 235
Oxford Down Sheep 138
P
parasites 118, 237, 240–41
Passover lamb 224
peat 244–7
Pegolotti, Francesco 28, 72
Pen Bedw 126–7
Pennines 57–8
Phillips, Sir Richard 48–9
plaid 73–4
Poland 228
Polled Dorset Sheep 185
polled sheep 16, 147
Cheviots 70, 78
Dorset 185
Easycare 235
Herdwicks 159, 160
Mouflon xvii
Ryeland 29
Southdown 137
Polwarth Sheep 39
porphyry 78
Portland Sheep 12–16
Potemkin, Prince Grigory 49
Potter, Beatrix 172
Prusiner, Stanley 149–50
Puli 203
pundings 11
Pyrenean Mountain Dog 203
Q
Quine, Jack 18
R
raking 77
ram hiring 52–6
Ramadan 224
Rambouillet 180
Rare Breeds Survival Trust 19, 154–5
Rawnsley, Canon H. D. 209
re-wilding 243–8
Richard, King, Coeur-de-Lion 28
Robson, James 76
Romans 24–5, 26–7, 31, 39
rooing 10
Rosenberg, Michael 155
rudding 170–71
Russia 39
Ryeland Sheep xxi, 29–30, 44
S
sacrifice 224–6
Saxons 27, 93
Sayer, James D. 153–4
Scarth, Robert 6–7
Scotch Blackface Sheep 70–71, 92–5
and Scottish Greyface 128–9
Scotch Halfbred Sheep 98, 100, 122
Scott, Sir Walter 70–71, 73, 75, 76, 197, 200
Scottish Greyface Sheep 128–9
scrapie 147–52
seaweed 4–7, 10
Sellar, Patrick 97
shack 140
shearing 9–10
shearlings 62
sheep pyramid xvi–xvii, xxi, 59–65, 126–7, 134
sheep sales 63, 100, 110, 129–33
sheepdogs 194–7, 204–8, 210–20
breeds 202–4
collies 200–201, 202
lambing 83–4, 86
moving sheep 197–200
names 201–2
and primitive sheep 1–3, 14
shepherds 27, 34
boots 164
bushes xiv
costs 235
counting sheep 208–10
and dogs 196–7, 201, 202, 203, 204, 214
hirsels 77
lambing 82–7, 111
raking 77
Sutherland 101–2
Shepherd’s Bush xiv Shepherd’s Plaid 73, 76
Shetland Islands 35
Shetland Sheep 8, 19, 129
short-tailed sheep 3–11
Shortwool breeds xxi, 29
see also Ryeland Sheep
Shropshire Down Sheep xix, 137, 138–9, 188–9
Sikhs 231
Sinclair, Sir John 6, 95
Skipton 65
slaughter
foot-and-mouth epidemic 221–4
religious 226–31
smit 163–4
Soay Sheep 3, 79
Sobieski-Stewart, John and Charles-Edward 75
soil xvi
Somerville, Lord 143
Southdown Sheep xix, 48, 134–7, 144–5
Spain 179–81, 203
Spanish (Jacob) sheep 1–3, 13, 19–21, 79
Spencer family 34
spinsters 27
split-eyelid 19
Spot (dog) 216–19
staple 28, 37
staple length 37
staple strength 37
stells 77–8
Steriopulos, George and Diana 18
Suffolk Sheep 64, 98, 138, 139–47, 154
scrapie 147, 148, 152–3
Sussex Sheepdog 202
Sutherland 95, 97–102
Swaledale Sheep xvi, 57–68, 93
and Bluefaced Leicesters 60, 63–4, 112, 113, 114–15, 121–2
scrapie 148
Sweden 228
Swift, Jonathan 57
Switzerland 228
T
Tacitus 73
tallow xx
tartan 74, 75–6
Teesdale 115
Teeswater Sheep 23, 44, 104, 115–16, 117, 120
Teifi Valley 187–90
Telfer, Adam 201
Tess (dog) 205–7, 211–12, 214
Texel Sheep 64, 98, 138, 146, 233–4
and Welsh Halfbreds 127, 128
Thorley, John 236
ticks 95
Tintern Abbey 28
Traill, James 5
transhumance 25–6, 71, 179–80
Trow-Smith, Robert 188
TSE (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy) 148, 150
Turbary sheep xvii
Tweddle, Crispin 238, 239–40
tweed 74–5
U
Unitarians 187
Urial sheep xvii
V
vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) 149
Victoria, Queen 76, 202
Viking sheep 3–11
Virgil 22
W
WASK (Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations) 227
WATOK (Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing) 227–8
Webb, Jonas xix, 137, 138
Webster, John 229
Welsh Collie 202
Welsh Halfbred Sheep 110, 122–8
Welsh Mountain Sheep 122–3, 126–7
and Bluefaced Leicesters 114, 127–8
and Border Leicester 123, 127, 128
and Easycare 235
Welsh Mule 127–8
Wensleydale 115
Wensleydale Sheep 23, 104, 115–20
West, Rebecca 225–6
wethers 8, 158, 232
Wharfedale 58, 65–6
White, Tim 236–8
Whitefaced Dartmoor Sheep 23
Whiteface Woodland Sheep 243
Wiltshire Horn Sheep xvi, xvii, 12, 235, 236–8
Wilyman, Gordon 123–4
Woodcock Graves, John 174
wool xx, xxi
Bluefaced Leicesters 112
breeds 22–4, 39–40
British Wool Marketing Board 35–6
Cistercians 72
eighteenth century 44, 47, 74
Herdwicks 173–4
Lincoln 22–4, 42
Lomond Halfbred 129
lustre 38
Merino 179
Middle Ages 27–35, 72–4
in modern times 35–6, 40, 234–5, 236
properties and processes 36–9
Romans 24–5, 26–7
Saxons 27
shearing 9–10
tartan 75–6
tweed 74–5
weights 30–31
Wensleydales 118–19
Wool Staple 34–5
Woolsacks 31–2
worsted cloth 38, 39, 139
Wren, Sir Christopher 15
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Y
yellies 94–5
Youatt, William 27, 69, 94, 157, 161–2, 178
Young, Arthur 52, 136, 142, 144–5
1. Hardy little Black Hebridean wethers, belonging to the northern short-tailed group of primitive sheep that once would have occupied the western seaboard of the British Isles, even into the Channel Isles. All primitive breeds are highly efficient at extracting energy from almost any kind of vegetation, but the Hebridean is in a league of its own.
2. Extravagantly horned ram of the Manx Loghtan (lugh dhoan), the national sheep of the Isle of Man. These are proud sheep, unconquered by modernity. The horns are more ornamental than useful as rams can split their skulls if they start fighting – which they find irresistible.
3. Castlemilk Moorits were created in the last century by Sir Jock Buchanan Jardine to grace his park at Castlemilk in Dumfriesshire, with the practical benefit of providing wool to clothe his estate workers. They are a cross between a wild Mouflon, Manx and Shetland, and are a unique modern manifestation of an ancient breed.
4. Jacobs come with varying numbers of horns, up to six, and all with unique piebald fleeces, ‘the sportings of nature, speckled and spotted,’ unchanged since The Creation, a direct link with the ancient world.
5. Portlands are another breed with an ancient lineage stretching back into the Iron Age. Their last redoubt was on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, but they would once have been ubiquitous across south-west England. This proud little ram with his impressive horns, is considering whether or not to charge at me.
6. Portland lambs are born foxy ginger, grow a creamy fleece as they mature but never lose the tell-tale tan colouring on their legs and dished faces. Note the characteristic black line running through the outer edge of the ewe’s horn.
7. Another remnant of the northern short-tailed group, North Ronaldsays live entirely on seaweed for two-thirds of the year, where they are confined to the foreshore of their island by a wall built above high water, to ‘louping height.’ Not all the sheep treated the wall with the same respect – these two used it as a look-out post.
8. Picking the best. A group of North Ronaldsays graze the fresh, crisp blades of ware recently exposed by the retreating tide. They lie up, on the beach head, chewing the cud at high water, then, when the tide turns they follow the ebbing water, competing for the fresh seaweed. The more intrepid will sometimes swim to a rocky outcrop for the freshest fare.
9. Some people will go to any lengths to grab a headline! Louise Fairburn in her wedding dress, made from the fleece of one of her Lincoln Longwools, holds Risby Olivia, her champion ewe. The men wore woolly waistcoats and the guests dined on her Lincoln lamb.
10. Risby Ruby and her lamb. The names of pedigree sheep begin with a different initial letter of the alphabet for each year. Every part of a Lincoln Longwool, except their black Roman noses and ears, grows ringlets of the highest quality lustre wool.
11. Traditionally managed hill flocks are still lug marked to indicate ownership. This Cheviot ewe from Tim Elliot’s Hindhope flock in the Borders is marked with an upper key bit and lower fold bit in its right ear. Note the black nose, one of those secondary characteristics, like black cleats (the cleft between the hooves) that is a sure indicator of hardiness.
12. Swaledale ewe with her new-born Mule twin lambs. This first cross in the sheep pyramid, with a Bluefaced Leicester ram, produces an outstanding hybrid breeding female which goes on to be crossed a second time with a Down ram to provide much of the lamb we produce for the table. Note the intensely contrasting and stylish black and white colouring on the lambs which they have inherited from both their mother and father.
13. Robert Bakewell (1725–95), on his cob, at the height of his powers. During many summers he tirelessly criss-crossed England on horseback noting the effect of his New Leicester rams on the hundreds of flocks whose owners had hired them. He is the most prominent of those breeders who began the transformation of English sheep from wool to meat producers.
14. Native to Sussex and first improved by John Ellman, the Southdown was taken up by many nineteenth-century breeders. One of the most successful was Jonas Webb of Babraham in Cambridgeshire. The drawing is propaganda, caricaturing Webb’s sheep as preposterously meaty carcases with impossibly fine boned legs.
15. By 1840 the Scotch Blackface had almost entirely supplanted the old Scottish breeds and come to dominate all the harder hills of Scotland. This shearling ram is of the Perthshire type, which has a large frame and heavy coat. The wire stretcher training the horns into an elegant shape (like a dental brace) can just be made out behind its right horn.
16. Caused by the differences of climate and terrain, over time, subtle variations in the Blackface breed arose. This ewe with her ram lamb is of the Lanark type, dominant in central and southern Scotland and the Borders. Its fleece is shorter and denser than the Perthshire type
17. The Wensleydale has lost out in recent years to its ancestor the Teeswater and its more socially ambitious cousins the Bluefaced Leicester and Border Leicester, but it still has a devoted following of breeders who want a fine crossing sire for horned blackfaced hill ewes, particularly the Dalesbred. It passes on to its hybrid offspring, the Masham, its fecundity and heavy lustre-wool fleece, pirled to the end of each ringlet.
18. Wensleydale ewes are excellent milkers and well-able to rear the twins and triplets they usually produce. The intense blue skin, inherited from their progenitor ‘Bluecap’ is evident, even from birth, in the faces and ears of these new-born lambs.
19. ‘It should have a head like a solicitor.’ Bluefaced Leicesters were first bred around Hexham for crossing with Swaledales and Blackfaces to produce hybrid Mule breeding ewes. Once considered the poor man’s Border Leicester, so popular and successful have they become that only buyers with deep pockets can now afford the best of them.
20. Buyers at the biggest ram sale in Europe held each September at Kelso, lining the ring to admire ‘the cock o’ the lug and the glint o’ the eye’ of this fine Border Leicester ram lamb. This breed is Bakewell’s enduring Border legacy.
21. The breeder of this pen of rams has heeded well the Suffolk Society’s breed standard that their ‘hind legs should be well filled with meat and muscle’. The Suffolk vies with the Texel to be the most ubiquitous meat breed in Britain, the sire of many millions of prime lambs that grace our tables every year.
22. You wanted meat, well here it is! Beltex rams at Kelso. Uncompromising examples of the breeder’s art, like a gang of night-club bouncers.
23. Herdwicks are the tough mountain sheep native to the English Lake District. They are said by their devotees to ‘live on fresh air, clean water and good views’, as can be seen from the sparse pickings that sustain these sheep in January at Buttermere, in the heart of their ancestral domain.
24. Herdwick ewes straight off their heafs in October, at the annual draft ewe sale at Cockermouth. The ewes in the foreground have been rudded to dress them up for sale, whereas those in the pen on the left of the picture prefer the natural look.
25. The golden hoof. A Dorset Horn chilver that has spent the winter folded on a crop of turnips and kale. Note the white flesh of the stumps of turnips that the sheep have eaten flush with the surface and the black deposits of sheep muck spread evenly over the land between the flints that litter this thin soil
26. Tess, the author’s Border Collie cross Bearded Collie bitch. She is typical of the working sheep dogs of the north of England.
27. There are more ways to move a flock of sheep than barking at their heels. A kelpie, ‘mounted up’ and running across the backs of a flock of Merinos.
28. East Friesland milking ewe at Orchid Meadow Farm in Dorset. There is a genetic correlation between heavy milking and a slender frame. These sheep are the ovine equivalent of dairy cows with their delicate feminine pink skin and fine bones.
29. A batch of East Friesland sheep being milked in the parlour at Orchid Meadow Farm. Each batch tak
es about ten minutes to milk; their feed is rationed according to milk yield and dispensed through the white tubes above their heads.
30. Texel ewes. Short-necked, square blocks of meat. Bakewell would have been impressed that modern breeders have succeeded in making the hindquarters bigger than the forequarters, something that eluded him.
31. This Whitefaced Woodland ram, from Woodland Vale in the Derbyshire Peak District, is a relative of the Welsh Mountain, the Herdwick and the Cheviot and part of that great affinity of hardy sheep that was once native to the west side of England in a great sweep from the Scottish Borders to the West Country.
32. The quintessence of chalky whiteness, the Wiltshire Horn has long been acclimatised to the calcareous downs of its eponymous county. It is our only breed that naturally sheds its pelt (hardly a fleece) in summer. This ewe survived entirely on grass all winter and had just given birth to twins a quarter of an hour earlier.
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Counting Sheep Page 28