Clun History - Article 3
The History of the Clun Forest Breed - Rosemary Ruddell
The
Clun Forest sheep has a very ancient lineage, for it is descended from one of
the oldest types of sheep found in England, a distinction it shares with the
other Uplands breeds of the Welsh English border, and also with the sheep of the
Welsh mountains.
The
immediate forbearers of the Clun as we know it today were for many years little
more than an obscure local type of sheep. Then, at the turn of this century, the
Clun began to spread to other parts of England, especially to the eastern
lowlands. As one historian put it, "the Clun began to expand dramatically in
numbers." By mid-century, the Clun Forest sheep was the third most numerous pure
breed in Britain and was outnumbered only by the two great mountain breeds the
Welsh Mountain and the Scottish Blackface. To understand the forces that led to
the development of the Clun Forest sheep, it is helpful to briefly overview the
history of the British, or more correctly, the English sheep industry over the
last 200 years.
At the end of the 16th century in
England, estimates indicate that there were three times as many sheep as there
were people. This is not surprising, for since the 13th century, England had
grown wealthy on the backs of these small, simple, yet versatile animals. There
were, and still are, many different types of sheep found in England, each
adapted over many centuries to specific habitats, but they were all bred
primarily for wool.
In some
areas, large flocks of sheep were milked and provided the basis for a thriving
cheese industry, and well into the 20th-century farmers living in some marginal
areas continued to milk ewes in order to provide their families with a year's
supply of cheese. Today, in Britain as in North America, there is a revival of
interest in sheep's milk cheese, and there are now some 200 dairy flocks in
Britain. Many of these producers choose to use heavy milking English breeds,
often the Clun Forest, for they find that these animals are both hardier and
simpler to manage than are the more fragile imported dairy breeds.
In
contrast, meat production was not historically important. Until the 18th century
some 80 percent of England's population lived in rural areas at little more than
subsistence levels. Though the gentry could afford to eat well-fatted
four-year-old wethers, the majority of the population ate very little meat, and
such sheep's meat as was available consisted of scraggy mutton taken off aged
ewes and wool wethers. The wool breeds had a very poor mutton conformation; they
were slow to mature, and most were small. The 18th-century records of
Smithfield's meat market in London show that the average weight of a mature
ewe's carcass was a mere 25 pounds. If mutton production were to become
important, these animals would have to changeand change they did.
The
18th century saw the beginning of a period of rapid change in the English
economy. The rural population began moving to the towns and cities; except in
marginal areas, the small subsistence farms disappeared, to be replaced by
larger commercial-type farms that were capable of producing the surplus of food
that was required to feed a growing urban population that now demanded large
quantities of meat. By 1800 farmers were finding it more profitable to produce
meat than wool.
Thus
began the great era of sheep improvement. Through selective inbreeding and more
frequently cross breeding, farmers sought to produce animals that had a good
mutton conformation, by which is meant that they were well muscled in all the
right places. They also wanted animals that would finish quickly at the least
cost. It is this period that saw the emergence of most of the British breeds
that we know todayincluding the Clun Forest.
The
ability to finish early was of great importance, for up to this time it normally
took some four years before an animal reached market weight the English
perforce were mutton eaters. As long as wool prices remained high, it paid to
feed wool wethers and ewes for four years, but from the middle of the 18th
century wool prices had been in decline, and thus farmers were eager to lessen
the time it took to finish an animal. It was not until well into the 19th
century that there emerged breeds capable of finishing in their first season
that is as lambs. Once the consumers were offered this better product they
increasingly began to demand it.
It is
said of farmers that some ten percent are innovators, some thirty percent are
quick followers, and the rest follow in their own good time. From 1800 onwards,
innovative farmers all over the country were attempting to improve their flocks,
and when they got good results, their example was followed by their neighbours,
and over time a new type of local sheep would emerge. Rarely do we know the
names of these early farmers or have detailed knowledge of all the breeding
decisions that led to the emergence of the new composite breeds.
Showing, as we know it today, developed in the first half of the 19th century
and played an essential part in the development of these new breeds. For it was
at local shows that the new breed was defined and later validated. The new
composite breeds were often unstable and subject to regression to earlier and
intermediate types, and breeders began to recognize the need for some form of
quality control, and thus to the concept of "breed type" they added "breed
purity" which was protected by pedigree, and constantly validated in the show
ring. This was a late development, for the first Flock Book, that of the
Shropshire, was not to open until 1882. Though many producers today believe that
showing has outlived its usefulness, and indeed on occasion has clearly been
counterproductive, it has in the past played a vital part in the development of
the sheep industry.
Early
in this period of innovation there emerged two breeds, both of which were to
play a very important role in the development of the modern sheep industry, and
directly in the history of the Clun Forest sheep. Around 1740, in the Midlands
of England, Robert Bakewell crossed two local long wool breeds, and after some
forty years of careful selection there emerged the New Leicester the first
true mutton breed. This animal has not survived, for it eventually proved to be
both too costly to feed and too fat. However it was the improving breed used on
most of the long wool breeds. In addition, its two descendants, the Border
Leicester, and Hexham or Blue Faced Leicester, are the sires used in the
Stratified Cross-breeding System. This system was first developed in the 1880s
and was well established by the 1930s. In this system, mature ewes from various
mountain and high hill breeds are brought down to lower pastures and bred to one
of the two Leicester breeds; the crossbred female progeny are known variously as
Halfbreds, Mules and Greyfaces. These crossbreds were sold, usually as
two-year-olds, to the great commercial flocks that were found on the lowlands of
eastern England. It is these animals that have always presented the major
challenge to the Clun ewe as the preferred breed for use in the commercial
flocks of the English lowlands. It is interesting that the two types of sheep
favoured by commercial producers, one a crossbred, the other a pure breed, have
in common a background of mountain or rough moorland breeding.
Around
1790, John Ellmand began to improve the local sheep of the South Downs of
Sussex, apparently without resorting to cross-breeding. By 1800, the Southdown
had appeared and was an instant success. It was considered to be the perfect
"butcher's sheep": medium- sized, with excellent mutton conformation, it did
well on both grass and turnips, and above all, it finished early that is, as a
two-year-old.
The
Southdown increased rapidly in numbers and became one of the premier sheep of
the 19th century. but its lasting legacy is that it was the improving breed used
to produce all the modern Downs breeds, the Dorset Down, the Hampshire, the
Oxford, and the Suffolk, as well as other breeds, the Clun Forest, the
Shropshire, and the Improved Ryeland. Their proud owners commissioned many
portraits of the early Southdowns, and they show a stocky, short legged animal,
with some wool on the top of the head and a clean face of a colour varying from
light to dark brown, which differs from the modern mouse- coloured face.
The
locality in which the Clun Forest breed was developed, and with which it is now
still identified, is part of southwest Shropshire, centred among the towns of
Clun, Craven Arms and Knighton. The forbearers of the breed ranged over a wider
area extending west to the open moorlands and into the two Welsh counties of
Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire, and to the east, extending across the south
Shropshire heath-lands as far as the river Severn. In the Clun area, the land
rose from east to west from 600 to 1250 feet, and until the middle of the 16th
century, this was one of the wildest and most desolate regions in England, for
it was an area of conflict between the Welsh and the English. The lower
altitudes were covered by several large forests (one of which our breed is named
after), interspersed with swampy marshlands, while at the higher altitudes, the
forests gave way to equally swampy moorland.
Fortunately, there are extant medieval records which describe the kind of sheep
that were general to the entire region. These were a small tan-coloured (by this
is meant reddish-brown) animal that foraged through the forests, swamps and open
moorlands. Historians believe that these animals are relics of a very ancient
type of forest sheep that had once been found all over England, but by this
period were found only in the most desolate parts of south west England.
These animals were closely related to the sheep of the Welsh mountains, for they
both are relics of the same ancient type. Today there are a number of variants
of the Welsh Mountain type, many retaining the tan-coloured face. There must
also have been local variants among the moorland sheep, but we do not know much
about them. Oral histories suggest that there was a speckled face type found in
the Kerry hills area, whilst in the Clun area the local sheep were polled and
had dark tan faces and legs, and further east on the heath-lands of Shropshire
were found two dark faced types that were horned, known as Longmynd and Cannock
Chase. Common sense and circumstantial evidence, and later direct evidence, make
it clear that over time there must have been a considerable admixture of
mountain and moorland breeding in the western part of the region, but it hardly
matters, for all these types were very similar, and all had evolved over the
centuries in a harsh environment, in response to the most basic of adaptive
pressures survival of the fittest.
Today's
improved breed bears little resemblance to its early 19th-century progenitors,
but it is from these animals that it must have inherited so many of the traits
that we value so highly: its hardiness and adaptability; the ability to survive
on poor forage and prosper on good forage; the strong bond between ewe and lamb;
the drive to survive that is shown by the lambs; and the ewe's capability for
heavy milking. This last quality is found in many mountain breeds, for the
lamb's continued survival depends to a large extent on rapid growth during the
first two months of life. One final point of interest is that the prominent eyes
that are so often seen in the Cluns are also seen in the Welsh mountain sheep,
which suggests the continued vitality of those ancient mountain genes.
Early
in the 19th century, Southdown rams were introduced into the region that
includes both the Clun Forest area and the heathlands to the east, and by 1840
there had emerged a distinctive new type of sheep that was general to the
region, and is ancestral to both the Clun Forest and the Shropshire. There are
portraits of Shropshires that were painted between 1845 and 1870, and they show
a sheep with a woolen topknot and a dark face that is totally clear of wool. A
number of observers have noted that these animals appear more like the modern
Clun than the modern Shropshire. Following this period, the history of the two
breeds diverged, and the type that was to become known as the Shropshire was
further improved and vigorously promoted by two farm families who lived in the
Severn valley. Historians believe that a third breed may have been introduced,
probably the New Leicester, and over time, the Shropshire was subject to very
different selection pressures than was the Clun Forest.
The Clun remained an obscure local type for another fifty years, and it would seem that it changed very little over these years the breed type was essentially set around the middle of the last century. Various sources state that both Shropshire and Kerry Hill rams were used by farmers in the Clun area, but as this occurred at a time when the three breeds were still very similar, it seems unlikely that it resulted in any significant change in the breed. Other unrecorded genetic infusions may well have occurred during this period, for this was the age of experiment, but judging from the portraits, we see that the breed changed very little.
In the last few decades of the 19th century, the Clun was gaining recognition as
a distinctive type of sheep, and beginning to spread beyond the local area. Clun
flocks were found on some mixed dairy farms in Wales and on similar farms on the
grasslands of the West Midlands, but the breed's real opportunity arrived at the
turn of the century. In 1880, grain prices collapsed in Britain due to the
introduction of cheap imports, while at the same time lamb production was
becoming increasingly profitable. As a result large areas of arable land were
returned to grass and sheep, especially in the lowland regions of eastern
England.
The
arable farms did not find it profitable to produce their own replacements, and
thus required a steady supply of young ewes that were hardy, prolific, heavy
milking, and capable of raising a pair of well-muscled twins off grass. These
requirements were met by both the Clun Forest type sheep and the cross-bred ewes
produced by the stratified cross-breeding system. As a general rule, the cross-breds
were popular in the north and the Clun in the south. (One may well ask how it is
that a ewe whose tough, moorland progenitors were almost certainly not prolific
had acquired a reputation for prolificacy. The best explanation offered suggests
that once there was a profitable market for lamb, the early breeders sold off
the large single lambs in the summer and were thus forced to select their
replacements from the smaller twins, themselves more likely to produce multiple
births.)
To meet
this huge demand for commercial breeding stock, Clun numbers began to increase
dramatically and the traditional flocks of the Clun valley were transformed:
they became "multiplier" flocks. They not only had to increase numbers rapidly,
but the sale of large numbers of young ewes was a constant drain on their
breeding stock. To compensate they continually drafted in hardy ewes from the
upper moorlands, and these were graded up to Clun Forest. Most of these ewes
were essentially of the same type, but mountain-type ewes that were both cheap
and plentiful would certainly have been included. This practice continued in
some flocks until the early 1940s. With the vast numbers of animals involved, it
is inevitable that within the breed there is a considerable degree of genetic
diversity which can express itself phenotypically, and it is recognized today
that there are a number of distinct strains within the breed, but at the same
time, the continued infusion of so much high country breeding has ensured that
the breed has not lost the virtues of its early moorland progenitors.
In
1925, a group of leading Clun breeders opened the Flock Book, "to secure in the
future, absolute purity of lineage and fixity of type." Gradually, flocks began
to close and establish pedigree status and after the hiatus of the Second World
War, the Clun entered its Golden Age, a period which extended from the
mid-forties to the seventies. It is during this period that the Clun became the
third most numerous purebred in Britain. At the annual four-day sales at Craven
Arms some 75,000 purebred ewes were sold, and there were other sales centres.
Some flocks were very large, and it is claimed that several flocks were selling
over a thousand purebred sheep a year. The breeders had a number of markets, for
not only did they ship large numbers of ewes to the commercial farms of eastern
England, but Clun flocks both pedigreed and commercial were being established on
grassland in many parts of the country and also in Scotland and Ireland.
The
Clun of this period might be called the "Classic Clun," and there were many
pictures taken of this animal as it was between 1950 and 1970. All have a
distinct woolen topknot and a brown face, though all were not so dark as became
fashionable in show flocks at a later date. Some rams have wool on their face,
especially on the cheeks, and of course, we see this in North America,
especially on young rams, but it is generally accepted that clean faces are to
be preferred. The faces are not so long as became fashionable at a later date,
and they tend to be quite wide across the eyes. The ears are generally small to
medium in size, though there are animals with larger ears, and they are always
held upright, though many are set at a forty-five degree angle. In recent years,
show breeders have selected for close-set, very upright ears, but this is not a
general characteristic of the Classic Clun, and perhaps we should remember that
it is the Classic Clun that established and sustained the breed's reputation as
a highly productive grassland ewe breed.
It is
the Classic Clun which provided the foundation of the breed in North America
when Tony Turner imported two rams and thirty-nine ewes in 1970, to be followed
by one further ram. Readers may well ask why it is that a breed that was so
important in Britain did not arrive in North America until 1970. Suffice to say
that between 1914 and 1950 there were virtually no exports from Britain, for
this period saw two World Wars, the Depression, and a number of outbreaks of
foot-and-mouth disease in Britain. When exports were allowed, the quarantine
regulations had become so formidable and expensive that only the most determined
breeder would attempt to import sheep to north America.
Clun
breeders owe a considerable debt to Tony, who coming to Canada in the 1960s, had
the experience and foresight to recognize that the Clun Forest sheep was very
well adapted for use on the grassland farms of North America. Right from the
beginning there developed a nucleus of enthusiastic Clun breeders, but in
general, aceptance of the breed was slow. Perhaps this was in part due to poor
promotion (including the lack of university sponsorship), but this was not a
period when there was great interest in grassland farming. Shepherds were
advised to increase productivity by introducing new and more complex production
systems. All too often these systems involved increased labour, running, and
capital costs which the returns could not justify. This became increasingly
evident in the slump of the 1980s, and interest in low cost operations based on
grass and forage began to increase, and with this, so did interest in Clun
Forest sheep. This last decade has seen a significant increase in the numbers of
Clun breeders scattered right across the continent, and we trust that it will
continue.
Following the arrival of Tony's flock, Angus Rouse of Nova Scotia undertook two
further importations, and the arrival of these sheep has done much to secure the
breed in North America. Last year imported semen was successfully used by a
breeder in the United States, and there are plans for further imports of semen.
While
all these developments were taking place in North America, the situation was
changing in Britain. There has been a steady decline in overall sheep numbers
since 1914, and this accelerated in the 1970s as Britain, including the
agricultural sector, experienced a period of serious economic decline. The sheep
industry was particularly hard hit because of large imports of cheap New Zealand
lamb. After close to a hundred years, there now occurred a reversal of the
events of 1880. In part because of the distribution of subsidies, grain
production became much more profitable than was lamb production. Wherever
possible, grass lands were returned to arable or other types of farming, and
with this, the Clun breeders lost a substantial portion of their traditional
markets. Breeding ewes were a glut on the market and prices dropped abysmally.
Clun breeders fought back by crossing their ewes with Leicesters to produce the
English Half bred, which is reputed to be the most prolific sheep in Britain,
but this alone could not stem the loss. Clun numbers began to decline, and today
many of the great pedigreed flocks have disappeared, as their owners have been
forced to turn to other forms of farming. There are, of course, many Clun flocks
remaining in Britain, some pedigreed and others commercial, and though the
numbers have declined substantially, the breed still rests on firm foundations.
The
reputation of this most versatile pure breed rested on its ability to function
as a superb commercial ewe breed on grassland farms, but it has also been used
as a crossing breed, and already is a foundation sheep for two new breeds: the
Colbred and the Cambridge. Recently, the Clun has been developing a reputation
as a dairy sheep. It has been said of the Clun breed that it was bred in the
19th century to 20th-century specifications. Perhaps we should change this and
suggest that the breed was bred in the 19th century, improved in the 20th
century for what will be 21st-century North American specifications.
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