Meet the flock
Whittington Flock - Oxford Down Flock Number - 1352
Whittington Oxford Downs was founded in May 2020 with 6 shearlings and 3 ewe lambs from Lydiard Oxford Downs, a signet recorded, MV accredited flock based near Swindon. We chose them because they were performance recorded, breed to supply a box scheme and displayed the traits we sought.
In 2020 we put them to our first ram Lydiard Douglas, who produced cracking replacement ewe lambs and a number of lambs for our lamb boxes.
In July 2021 we were lucky enough to purchase the whole of John Briggs Gorse Flock (Flock No 831).
The Gorse flock had been established for 50 years and had been a closed flock since 1972. All of the females currently trace back to two of the original five ewe lambs bought from the famous Adderbury Flock No 44 (est-1854); one of the foundation flocks when the Oxford Down Association was established in 1889.
The flock was bred using 100% UK genetics avoiding the use of any descendants of Schwarzkopf rams. We continue to record the separate blood lines within our flock.
The Whittington flock currently comprises of 40 Ewes, 7 Shearlings, 22 Ewe lambs and 3 rams.
Commercial Ewes -
To develop and prove the terminal sire traits of our Oxford Down Rams we decided to establish a small commercial flock of Lleyn X ewes in 2021. We hope the Oxford x Lleyn lambs will do well selling commercialy. We will keep you updated in our blog how this project develops.
Rams -
We currently have 3 rams:
Lydiard Douglas - Dougie, as we affectionately call him, is a big, bold 2 year old Pedigree Oxford Down ram.
Greenlands Roland - Roland is a long, strong 3 year old Oxford Down Ram who we purchased from John Briggs of the Gorse Flock.
Jock - LLeyn (Non Pedigree) Jock Joined us in 2021 to provide replacement Lleyn ewe lambs for our commercial flock.
The Shepards
We are Lucy & Dale, and along with our sheepdog Nelly we manage our flock of pedigree Oxford Downs and Lleyns to promote and develop the Oxford Down Breed and provide our customers with Lamb, mutton and wool products from our flock.
We are first generation farmers, who are fascinated by how using our livestock we can improve habitats for wildlife, sequestrate carbon and feed our local community nutrient dense, environmentally enhancing meat.
When we are not shepherding we enjoy a mixture of horse riding, mountain biking and piano playing (Nelly enjoys chasing squirrels).
