The Wensleydale Longwool breed of sheep originated in North Yorkshire early in the 19th Century. They were represented by two different breed societies in 1890 - the Wensleydale Longwool Association and the Wensleydale Blue-faced Sheep Breeders’ Association. Each group produced its own flock book, despite the fact that each represented the same breed with the same characteristics. Eventually the two societies amalgamated in 1920 to form the current Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders Association.
The Wensleydale is a large sheep, tall and sometimes almost goatlike in shape. The skin on the head and ears is blue, and often also on the body, especially where it is exposed to sunlight.
It is the lustrous, tumbling "dreadlocks" though, that make the breed easy to identify. The staples are curled or purled throughout their length, making one of the UK's most highly prized of wools. The Wensleydale is listed as "At Risk" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
The ewes make excellent mothers, often bearing twins and supplying good quantiites of milk to bring on these leggy, large lambs well. The rams are often crossed with hill breeds to make sturdy, hardy lambs that mature quickly. The ewe lamb below is just two hours old.
The flockbook registers both White and Coloured Wensleydales under seperate sections, with coloured including black, brown and silver. I keep both white and coloured, mainly for their wonderful fleece!.
Lleyn
The Lleyn is, of course, a Welsh native breed, originating from the Lleyn peninsula. They have become popular in the UK over the last ten years or so, since farmers and smallholders have noticed their ease of keeping, great maternal instincts, versatility and quiet nature, allowing them to fit in to lowland and highland regions. Their fleece is of excellent quality, being close and neat, the palest of creams behind a white face. The ewes produce a lot of twins, and frequently triplets, and they are often crossed to pass on the qualities of low maintenance and easy, prolific lambing.
I must admit to origionally choosing Lleyn through necessity. I was looking for cade lambs very early in the season - a newly purchased Wensleydale shearling ewe had unexpectedly produced - and sadly lost - lambs very early in February. Lleyn were the only lambs that I could find to provide her with a foster lamb. She cared for one, and I bottle reared two more. Being the smallest of three sets of triplets they obviously began life small, but I found them strong, active lambs who did very well and - to date at least - have been no problem at all. They are inquisitive but calm by nature and have beautiful, neat and clean fleeces (especially compared to the Wensleydales who never seem happy unless their fleece is full of vegetation!). They have also grown steadily and well without eating me out of house and home!
This autumn I will be increasing numbers of Wensleydale, crossing some hill ewes with my Wensleydale rams to produce long, heavy, lustrous and open fleeced progeny, and looking for a Lleyn ram.
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