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The Amerston flock of Wensleydales, Traditional Bluefaced Leicesters & Border Leicesters

12/07/2025

What a week at the Great Yorkshire Show!

It's been the most manic few weeks preparing to take my sheep and the Wensleydale Sheep: A Handcrafted History exhibition to the Great Yorkshire Show this year. I'm so proud of and grateful to the artists, the sheep, everyone who volunteered to man the stand/exhibition and demonstrate crafts. But I'm particularly grateful to my ever suffering Nick Holden, Diane Shadforth and to Graham Steventon for all of their help and support this week (and all the rest of the time!), particularly when the stress of it all finally got to be a bit too much. I think when I've finished setting up at the Dales Countryside Museum this week I'll be ready for a day off! All four of us are certainly due one

I didn't manage to get any photographs of me and the sheep in the ring this year, but I did take some of them on the stand (meeting and greeting some famous faces!) and of Olivia in Young Handlers (5th in a class of 22! Well done Lucy, you and your sprogs amaze me every time)

I took 14 Wensleydales in total (never again!), 8 for the stand and 6 for the show, and all apart from 2 aged ewes on the stand that I nabbed at the last minute were home bred. I've a long way to go with my Wensleydales, I think they'll always be an evolving journey, but I'm really proud of them and I feel they did a good job representing the breed this week on the stand. The show sheep did scarper up to the exhibition/breed stand on Thursday night to enjoy a day under some industrial fans on Friday, so it was nice to have the whole crew together for the last day

As for results, considering I was ready to not bother taking show sheep if you'd asked me at the weekend prior 😂 I was more than happy with a 1st, 2nd, 4 x 4ths and a 5th. Next year's goal is keeping a ewe hogg in wool so I can show in the hogg class - at least this year I've had a reasonable number of ewe lambs! 🤞

25/05/2025

Now that my tup hoggs have been to the only show that they'll attend in full wool (WLSBA rules for affiliated classes only allow males to be shown in full wool at 3 named shows, one of which is Otley Show), I spent a couple of days after Otley hand clipping a few of the boys with traditional skirts ready for the rest of their showing season ✂️

I think they appreciated having their fleeces off with all the warm weather! ☀️🐑

17/05/2025

Had a fab day out at Otley Show today with Nick and the gang. The boys got 2nd and 4th in the tup class and the highlight of the day was getting ✨ Supreme Champion Wool on the Hoof ✨ with one of the tup hoggs! A lovely day for it all as well even if the boys didn't want to stand for their photo taken 🙄🙈

Heather the coloured BFL x Wensleydale had hoped to make waves in the young handlers, but Ava stood her up due to transport difficulties, so she ended up just having a trip out for the day instead 😂

18/04/2025

Tup hoggs in for their Spring MOT. They've been running away on herbal leys through the winter which have been a great alternative to hard feed and apart from some mud they've stayed relatively clean for once 🙌

20/02/2025

Lambing time started very slowly a couple of weeks ago with crossbreds leading the way, but some Wensleydale lambs are finally starting to make an appearance! The black Wensleydale lambs are out of historical semen, so I've been excited to see what they'd come out like - it's hard not to be besotted 😁

21/01/2025

The lads enjoyed their day out today at The Garden Rooms at Tennants, where they greeted visitors to the Wensleydale Sheep: A Handcrafted History exhibition opening event! Thankfully the rain even held off 🙌

Black Wensleydale ram Howe Jet Miner (Wilbur) and my homebred tup hogg Eric 😊✨

18/11/2024

Can't say the Wensleydales were impressed about having to truffle through this morning's frost to get to the grass - can only imagine how they'll feel about snow! ❄️🥶😂

09/11/2024

The last few months have been really hectic, but I was walking the fields tonight and took a few videos. It's really nice to see the ewes looking so well after last year's Selenium deficiencies, fingers crossed for a kinder lambing for everyone this coming season 🤞

19/08/2024

Had a really lovely time at Sedgefield show last weekend, definitely a much needed day off! As always, Lucy kindly provided my favourite sprogs for the Young Handlers, with Ava having her first proper go at the pet lamb class with Heather (the black BFL x Wensleydale lamb). As always though, best mother (and friend) award goes to Lucy, who kept all three of us (Ava, Olivia and myself) supplied with snacks all day 😂

Was really nice to see a good turnout in the native & rare breed class for our local show, and a big hats off to Sedgefield agricultural show who had even gone out of their way to put little information panels out on the different sheep breeds being exhibited! Prompted loads of questions from the public and was a lovely little touch, would be lovely to see more shows do the same

Delilah, my Wensleydale shearling ewe won her ewe class and then took reserve champion for the native & rare breeds section. Will definitely go again next year, it's so good to see these rare breed classes popping up at more and more shows! Also took my spinning wheel for an outing and it was a great way to pass the day while chatting with visitors about heritage crafts. Lovely to be able to show the sheep, the wool that comes off them and the resulting yarn as I treadled away 🛞🧶🐑

08/07/2024

A little bit of housekeeping before The Great Yorkshire Show. Clipped the neighbour's little flock of pet sheep and a handful of my own that missed shearing day (if the Greyface Dartmoor lambs miss it again they'll have to survive un-clipped!). A humble reminder that I won't be setting up as a shearer any time soon 😂🐑✂️

23/06/2024

First show of the year today with the little show team, and our first time at Huby & Sutton show. Lovely weather, lots of smart looking sheep (especially brilliant to have so many different native & rare breeds represented!) and great to see folks again after what's felt like a very long winter!

Any Other Rare Breed
Tup Lamb 1st
Ewe (Any Age) 3rd & 5th
Ewe Lamb 2nd

Reserve Rare Breed Champion with tup lamb

Olivia strutting her stuff with "Emily" in Young Handlers after some stellar halter training from Lucy, as always 👌 and Nick being himself, which is to say endlessly patient 💚 Great Yorkshire Show next! Hopefully less halter action required, as much as I enjoyed my turbo-charged bunny hops around the ring 🤦‍♀️😂

10/06/2024

Today's the day! I've been planning on making a page for the flock for a few years now; it never quite feels like the right time, but I suppose it never really will. There's always more to learn, better photos to take, more achievements to make and mistakes to learn from... but I hope to share these things with anyone who takes an interest, as I go.

Expect to see photographs of Wensleydales, Traditional Bluefaced Leicesters and the odd smattering of Greyface Dartmoors and Gotlands amongst other things. Variety is the spice, after all!

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