Welsh Hill Speckled Face Sheep

The Welsh Hill Speckled Face is a relatively new-kid-on-the-block in terms of when it came into being.  It was first developed in the mid-20th century by crossing Kerry Hill rams to Welsh Mountain ewes and known for their extreme hardiness, grazing the higher elevation hilltops in Wales.  They look not unlike one of their ancestral genetic parents, the Kerry Hill.

The Welsh Hill Speckled Face sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Category 6: "Other UK Native Breeds" (over 3000) registered breeding ewes and they are usually found in North and Mid-Wales, thriving in harsh weather on upland but they can adapt to lower farming conditions.

The Welsh Hill Speckled Face is a medium build sheep with mature ewes weighing 60-70kg and rams weighing 80-100kg.  They have a wool-free whiteface with black markings on the nose, around the eyes, ears, knees and feet.  Rams are sometimes horned, ewes have no horns. 

They produce a medium size fleece of 1.5-2kg that is white and generally contains no kemp although rams can have a mane of kempy wool that is a testament to their hardiness. The locks are dense and muddled but if you grab a pointed tip and you can pull out a staple that has semi-organised crimp.  The staple length is usually 3-4.5 inches (7.5-11.5cm). 

This fleece can be spun from teased locks, it can be flicked or picked, carded or combed.  The fleece drafts smoothly for thick or thin yarns and they take dye easily and gives clear colours.

Yarns spun from Welsh Hill Speckled Face fleece that are on the finer end are soft enough for sweaters, hats and the like that may touch a bit of skin whilst those produced from fleece on the coarser end are better suited to outerwear, bags, pillows and other household textiles.  Lots of body and stability and less elasticity.

I had a fair bit of trouble getting hold of any fleece for this breed and I certainly couldn't find any that was for sale anywhere that was specifically this breed.  I began by e-mailing the breed society in April 2021 but there was no response. I used the secondary contact e-mail that was available and got a return notification that the e-mail address didn't exist, this was 30th May 2021.  I did some more searching and found a new e-mail address for the secretary.  It turns out the other secretary had resigned and it just so happened that the interim post holder was about to shear their own Welsh Hill Speckled Face sheep the next week.

The very helpful person was Eifion Harding from Penisarwaun, Caernarfon, who sent me just over 1kg of fleece that was very clean and full of kemp but no hair.  It arrived 22nd June and by the 25th it was washed, dried and combed.  What he sent me was the back and the sides of the sheep.  He only wanted to be reimbursed for the postage plus whatever donation I felt like giving and he would pass it on to his local air ambulance but I always pay properly for my fleece, especially when someone has gone out of their way to help me.

Eifion Harding with his sheep and his daughter and three of his sheep at the Eglwysbach Show 2017

The locks in this fleece are not 3-4.5 inches, more like 6-7 inches.

It was pretty clean when it arrived but now its been washed, wow, look at how white it is!

Hand combed top

1kg of fleece, or thereabouts, when washed weighed 876g and after it had been combed it weighed 375g but this fleece, from the back and sides of the sheep, was quite full of kemp or coarse hairs which my combs removed.  I always prefer quality over quantity anyway, regardless of what I am doing.

I spun this up as day 1 of the Tour de Fleece

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and you can feel the prickly hair and kemp and its definitely got some bounce alongside slight crispness.  My knitted piece for the project took 41g/97m so I have plenty left to do whatever with.