Tatton is home sweet home for new rare breed (From Knutsford Guardian)
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Tatton is home sweet home for new rare breed
12:20pm Saturday 23rd March 2013 in News
By James Wilson
Tatton’s Ellie Edwards and Ruth Dalton from the Rare Breeds Survival Trust
TATTON’S Home Farm has welcomed a new rare breed.
On March 7 the farm welcomed the arrival of the Whitefaced Woodland Sheep.
Home Farm has been chosen to give the animals a home on permanent loan from conservation charity the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
The Trust has been working closely with the Whitefaced Woodland Sheep Society to choose the sheep who would join the Cheshire set, and it was the society which suggested Tatton’s Rare Breed Farm as an ideal location for the flock.
The breed is classed as vulnerable by the Trust, with only 500 to 900 breeding females left in the country.
Tatton will carry out an important role in promoting the breed through a conservation breeding programme.
The Whitefaced Woodland Sheep is a local breed which originated in the Pennines on the borders of Derbyshire and Yorkshire.
Ruth Dalton, field officer for the Trust, said: “We are delighted to be able to work with Home Farm Tatton Park, an RBST Approved Conservation Farm Park, to showcase this lovely breed. “The Whitefaced Woodland has superb qualities and is a very appealing sheep, “I'm sure visitors will enjoy seeing them grow and produce lambs next year.”
