This country has the biggest collection of native breed sheep anywhere in the word – and Oxfordshire has its very own named variety.

The Oxford Down breed originated in the 1830s, emerging from the combination of Cotswold rams and Southdown ewes. Many of the first flocks were found around Witney, home of the county’s blanket industry. In 1889 the Oxford Down Sheep Breeders’ Association was formed and the first flock book (a record of the breed’s bloodlines) published.

The breed is easily recognised by its dark face and ears and large, stocky build. It also has a cute ‘Brucie’ topknot’.

It was the size of the breed which prevented me starting out with our local breed and going for the smaller, more manageable, Ryelands. But since gaining a bit more experience with livestock I have often been tempted to add some of our county’s breed to my flock.

The Oxford Down is the heaviest of all the Down breeds, and the second heaviest of all British breeds of sheep. It also produces the heaviest fleece of any of the Down breeds and the wool was commonly used for hosiery, knitting yarns and felts.

For the first half of the 20th century it was one of the most popular crossing sires for lamb and mutton production. Upwards of 1,000 rams were penned annually at the Kelso ram sales in the Scottish Borders, while in England the traditional sale was the Oxford Ram Fair. There is some great footage of the fair in 1930 on the British Pathé website. I can’t work out where the fair was held from the footage, but perhaps there’s someone out there who recalls this huge annual event?

The Oxford Down breed slipped from favour in the period between 1955 and 1970, a victim of fashion and a trend towards smaller sheep. But a small group of dedicated breeders kept the breed going and saw it enjoy a revival in the 1980s.

The breed’s popularity was based on the fact that rams could sire early maturing big lambs, allowing butchers to prepare larger joints with a greater depth of lean meat. It was also used for mutton which, sadly, has largely fallen out of fashion, despite being very tasty.

Today approximately 85 registered flocks are listed in the breed’s flock book. Oxford Down flocks can also be found in the USA (where large numbers were exported in the 1800s), Canada, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Eastern Europe and New Zealand.

While talking about local breeds, I have also got to mention the famous Cotswold. This breed is reputed to be descended from sheep introduced by the Romans. Folklore has it that the tops of the elaborate stone tombs at St John the Baptist Church, in Burford, represent the wool bales of the Tudor fleece merchants who prospered from the hills around the town where sheep grazed. Unfortunately for the theory, the ‘bale tombs’ date from the Restoration period — two centuries after the Cotswold wool boom.