Dales sheep

click photo to enlarge
The last major outbreak of foot and mouth disease to hit the sheep population of the Yorkshire Dales occurred in 2001. It led to the cull of the vast majority of the sheep in this upland area, most of which were of the Swaledale breed. Farmers had to bring in other breeds from unaffected parts of the country, sometimes varieties that were not as well suited to the rugged terrain as the Swaledales.

I grew up in Settle in the Dales and have visited the area regularly since work took me to live elsewhere in the country. On my returns after the disease was eradicated I found that I was unable to identify most of the breeds of sheep that took the place of the Swaledales, and I wondered if the native breed would ever return in the numbers that I remembered. I'm glad to say that it seems the flocks are being re-established, that many farmers are breeding them and re-introducing them into the limestone dales and high moorland. Some of the varieties that I don't recognise are still very evident, but I have a clear impression that as a proportion of the total Dales flocks they are declining.

Today's photographs show Swaledales on the hills around Attermire and a breed I don't know on a gated valley pasture very close to Upper Settle. The latter photograph was taken early in a walk that also included the second, and the height of the sun makes all the difference between the two shots.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 31mm (62mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Upland sheep

click photo to enlarge
The Fens of Lincolnshire used to be a land of sheep, but no longer. Today vegetables are much more profitable. However, sheep are still to be found in small numbers, and in larger numbers when they are brought in from more distant pastures to eat the left-overs when fields of cauliflowers and other brassicas have been harvested. Recently as I've travelled around, the breeds I've seen include Lincoln Longwool, Blue-faced Leicester, Blackface, and what appear to be Hebridean (though they may be black Soay sheep). These are in small resident herds, and are nothing like the sheep I've been used to for much of my life.

When I lived in the Yorkshire Dales the Swaledale (pronounced "Swaddle" locally) was ubiquitous. However, I also saw Dalesbred, Lonks, Rough Fell, Masham, and various other breeds. If I went to the Lake District it was the Herdwicks that I noticed roaming the fell sides. However, the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001 wiped out many herds in the North of England, and today some farmers are trying different breeds. As a child I was used to seeing Swaledale sheep in the Craven hills around Settle in North Yorkshire. But, in recent years, though this breed is still common, I've come across quite a lot of what appear to be North of England Mules. This breed is a cross between the Blue-faced Leicester and either the Swaledale or the Northumberland-type Blackface.

As I strode over the limestone hills near Attermire a while ago it was this breed that I came upon. The Swaledales coped with the fescues and nardus grasses, the high rainfall and bleak winters of the Pennines, and presumably there's enough of their hardiness in this cross-bred variety to do so too. A shaft of sunlight illuminated this group on the hillside, so I split the frame in half diagonally with the top of the slope, and selected a group that straggled along this line.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 118mm (236mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On