Shropshire Sheep

The Shropshire sheep, is part of the "Downs family" of sheep and was developed during the 1800's from the local native sheep, known as Morse Common sheep, who were small, horned and had black or brown faces and a superior quality of wool.  It is said that Southdown rams were crossed with these ewes to help remove the horns and then Cotswold and Leicester rams were used to improve staple length and density of the fleece.  By 1853, the Shropshire was recognised as a breed. 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 Shropshire sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 6: "Other UK Native Breeds" (over 3000) registered breeding ewes.  

Shropshires are found throughout the UK but particularly in the Midlands.

The Shropshire is a medium sized sheep weighing in on average at 120kg for a ram and 80kg for a ewe. It has a soft black face, ears and legs with wool on the forelock and cheeks   Both sexes are polled (hornless). 

They produce a good size fleece of 2-3kg 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 Shropshire 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-prepared fibre ready to spin.

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and a good sturdy yarn.  I have 94g/183m of sport weight yarn.  My knitted piece for the project took 27g/53m so I have some left to do whatever with.