Herdwick
£2.40
A birthday card with a Herdwick ram with long fleece and magnificent horns – and a speech bubble and text ‘Happy Birthday’.
– Blank inside for your own message
– Printed in the UK on premium card stock
– Supplied with a white envelope
In stock
Description
Herdwick
A birthday card with a Herdwick ram with long fleece and magnificent horns – and a speech bubble and text ‘Happy Birthday’.
Herdwick sheep have magnificent coats with a lovely mix of grey, white, and brown wool. Being a stiff and coarse wool, it stands up in ragged tufts. And being coarse, it is not suitable for making cloth.
And Herdwick sheep are quite slender under all that wool, so there are not desirable to breed for their meat.
All of which meant that they were already under threat as a species in the early part of the 20th century.
They are elegant sheep… not fat as a barrel like some breeds (apologies to any fat-as-a-barrel breeds, of course).
Farmers will tell you there are ‘better’ breeds for meat or wool and breeds that have more lambs in a season, which is how the Herdwick became an endangered breed and needed Beatrix Potter’s protection.
Beatrix Potter, the world-famous children’s author and illustrator, built up a flock of 1,000 Herdwick sheep on her farms in the Lake District in north-west England.
Her farms covered more than 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares), and on her death in 1943 she left her farms to the National Trust on condition that the Herdwicks were protected.
Which is how, partly due to her vision and that of the National Trust, 885 square miles (2,230 square kilometres) of the Lake District was dedicated as the The Lake District National Park in 1951.
And that’s why there are Herdwicks today, because without Beatrix Potter there probably wouldn’t be any Herdwicks.
Herwick Sheep Are Hefted To The Hill
Like several other breeds of upland sheep, Herdwick sheep are hefted to the hill. That means that they know their particular hill and they will not stray from it. And the land does not have to be fenced – which makes life easier for the farmer.
Picture the harsh conditions of the North of England, the Highlands of Scotland and the mountains of Wales and now picture the lush lowlands of southern England.
It’s tough living in the mountains. Every scrap of grass has had to push itself out of poor soil and make the best of short summers.
So if you are an upland sheep and you have found the good bits in your home patch, then that’s where you will stay.
Sheep living in those conditions don’t need fences to keep them in. They know their part of the hill so well that they don’t leave it: They are hefted to the hill.
SKU: C0011