Oxford Down Sheep

The Oxford Down sheep, also referred to simply as "Oxford" was developed during the 1830's when Cotswold rams were crossed with Southdown and Hampshire Down ewes.  Over the next 50 years or so the breed stabilised and, given that most of the flocks were around the town of Witney in Oxfordshire, the name "Oxford Down" was adopted. In fact the improved Southdown was cross bred with other native breeds in the downland counties and the improved Southdown bloodlines runs through all other Downs breeds, making the Southdown the grand ancestor of all of the other Downs breeds: Dorset Down, Hampshire Down, Oxford, Shropshire and Suffolk.

The Oxford sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 5: Minorty (1500-3000) registered breeding ewes.  

Oxfords are found throughout the UK but particularly in the Midlands and the Cotswolds.

The Oxford is the largest and heaviest of the British downs breeds weighing in on average at 147kg for a ram and 91kg for a ewe and this makes it the second largest of all of the British breeds, right behind the Lincoln Longwool.  It has a dark chocolate brown face and legs with wool on the forelock and cheeks and also most of the legs.  Both sexes are polled (hornless). 

They produce a good size heavy but open fleece of 2.5-4.5kg in weight with a staple length of 2-5 inches (5-12.5cm).  The fleece dense with short blocky staples that may be hard to distinguish from one another.  There is no hair or kemp in the fleece from this breed. The fleece should be white and free from dark fibres.

Shorter fleeces can be carded, longer ones will want to be flicked or combed.  Keep the draft light and open and the twist moderate to maintain the loft and springy character of the wool.  The wool is "chalky" but does take dye nicely but the colours won't be lustrous but neither will they be flat.  Has enough crimp to be nicely elastic and it doesn't felt very well.  

Yarns spun from Oxford fleece are great for socks, mittens, hats, sweaters and the finer fleeces will be great for next-to-skin items.

I have bought this breed in as 100g of pre-washed fleece so all I have to do is comb it and spin it.

I got 78g of hand combed top

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and is quite white.  I have 70g/175m of sport weight yarn.  My knitted piece for the project took 22g/50m so I have some left to do whatever with.