TheDoultonFlock

I started my flock way back in 1996 with 2 ewe lambs, bought from a sale at Lanark, which I called Martha and Minnie, after Coronation Street characters. Originally I had bought them just to show at local shows but fell in love with them, and very soon I added Dennis, Mavis, Natalie, Raquel, Maud, Gail, and Maxine. That was it- I was hooked on the breed. The Border Leicester sheep has the most amazing personality. They're very clever and know exactly how to get you to love them.
I adore them and do not EVER send any for slaughter. My sheep are born to live long healthy normal lives.

The Border Leicester has the most amazing fleece,white, semi lustrous, strong, crimped, with beautiful long locks, crimped from the skin to the very end of the staple. We have had a lot of success and won many Championships, East of England, Lincoln, Great Yorkshire to mention but a few, with our fleeces and with Wool on the Hoof. The sheep themselves have also won many Championships as they are so stunning.

I have sold to hand spinners and felters for a long time now and someone a few years ago, suggested that I get some of my fleeces processed into worsted spun yarn. I did and we launched our very first Limited Edition Doulton Border Leicester worsted spun yarn, in both DK and 4 ply, last September. We only produced it in 3 dyed colours, Light Grey,(Wainstones), Dark Grey,(Alum Beck) Doulton Blue and natural, which we called Sheep!
The demand for the yarn was really excellent and the feedback from our knitters was superb. Everyone liked it. It gives great stitch definition and there are many examples of projects which can be seen on our Ravelry group-The Doulton Flock.
We produced another Limited Edition which included two new colours in Spring.

We sent off the 2016 clip and have just received the latest Limited Edition colours which are so beautiful. We now have Semerwater, a lovely navy, Wainstones, the original light grey which was very popular, Dalby Forest, a beautiful green and Cringle Moor, a vibrant purple.

The sheep have grown to be 300 strong, each and every one of them named and loved by us. The rams are bred to breed half bred ewes. The breed is known as "The Sheep Industry's Great Improver". This means that my rams produce beautiful half bred ewe lambs, which are longer and leaner and become fabulous breeding ewes. The breed also gives very milky ewes.
We have also exported shearling ewes and rams to Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Belgium, where people who love the Border Leicester want to start their own little flocks in their own countries.

Latterly the Border Leicester has declined in popularity and is now on The Rare Breed Survival Trust's "At Risk" list. This means that there are less than 1300 breeding ewes in the country. I,and my flock of lovelies, do everything we can to promote the breed. We attend all the large County Shows, often showing in Any Other Native Breed classes. We have just come back from the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate where we picked up a trophy for Wool on The Hoof, the Male Champion, and the Reserve Overall Champion. Our shearling ewes also got tickets.
A shearling fleece we took got second prize in the fleece classes too.
We really try our hardest to promote this wonderful British breed in any and every way we can.
Everything we make from the fleeces and the yarn goes to support my flock.