Border Leicester

The Border Leicester was made by the Culley brothers in Northumberland in the 1760s, from Dishley Leicester stock bred by Robert Bakewell, the man who effectively invented systematic livestock improvement.

They are tall, upright, and unmistakable: a clean white head with no wool at all, a Roman nose, and large erect ears. The fleece is long, lustrous longwool that hangs in locks and is prized by handspinners.

Their main commercial use is as a crossing sire on hill ewes. The Border Leicester cross produces the mule ewe, the backbone of British lowland sheep production, adding size, milk and prolificacy.

The trade is that they are a crossing breed rather than an end product. Purebred Border Leicester lambs do not finish as well as a terminal cross, and the breed is kept in the United States more for fleece and for the crossbred ewe than for meat.