Meet the Yorkshire livestock breeder keeping a 200-year-old tradition alive

Laura Clark is the young lady responsible for the small flock of Leicester Longwools that has recently scored significant triumphs at Masham Sheep Fair and York Rare Breed Show & Sale, having previously had some success at the Great Yorkshire Show. Laura said taking on the breed had been a case of going back to the Sykes family’s roots.

“Sir Tatton Sykes bought his first Leicesters, as they were then known, from Robert Bakewell’s flock and the breed was brought back here five years ago," she said.

“It was the ideal breed to bring back with the family connection when the rare breed farm park was starting. We started with five ewes and have 20 in-lamb for the upcoming season.

"We lamb from January 15, with the ewes producing what we hope will look good at the summer agricultural shows as ram lambs and ewe lambs. We also lamb some in April. It can prove head scratching on deciding which will lamb better for producing the show lambs.”

Laura said that lambing in two stints hopefully also gives them two bites of the cherry in having new-born lambs around for visitors during half-term and at Easter.

“We find that visitors want to see the lambs when they are really tiny when they are cute and fluffy and others like seeing them develop, so spanning our lambing across both those periods works better.”

Laura had been a stable lass for racehorse trainers for ten years, including working with Declan Carroll at Sledmere, and as such she had been used to parading around a ring at racecourses, but showing sheep in a ring was something new.

Laura said that so far as she was concerned her initiation was as big as it could get.

“It was Richard Clifford who also works on the estate who talked me into it and we started with the Great Yorkshire as our first ever show," she said. "It seemed a little daunting to me at the time.

"No showing experience at all apart from parading a horse at the races, but we came away with two firsts with a ewe lamb and ram lamb which was brilliant because we’d bred them and when the ram lamb, Sledmere Bertie, took reserve male champion I was in tears.”

This year’s showing hadn’t looked like being as successful. Laura said she’d not planned on showing due to the ongoing situation regarding the pandemic.

“The Great Yorkshire Show was a bit of a last-minute decision for us as we hadn’t thought shows would be taking place. I’d made the decision to feed them normally rather than prepping. We grabbed them out of the field with a week to go, but still managed a fifth place with a ram, Sledmere Edison.”

It was the back end of the year when Laura and Sledmere Rare Breeds Farm Park was to taste real success, starting with the completion of a hat-trick of titles at Masham Sheep Fair and overall supreme champion at the York Rare Breeds Show and Sale.

Laura said the successes were even more special because the big prizes went to their homebred sheep.

“It was the third consecutive time we have had the Longwool champion and this time it was with our own homebred Sledmere Edison.

“It was particularly special because the previous year our stock tup had looked as though he might be infertile and I had risked Edison on five to six ewes as we couldn’t go showing in 2020.

“Edison produced us some really nice lambs this year. He’s also so well-behaved in the ring that my 18-month-old niece was able to take him in to the young handlers class at Driffield.

“Sledmere Ernest topped off our year at York by becoming the overall supreme champion, as well as champion longwool.

“I have never had a tup like him. He stood out for me as soon as he was born. He has a fantastic head, very masculine and he’s absolutely massive.”

While it is Laura’s tups that seem to be clicking at the moment she said that there had been no plan for the flock to breed rams specifically.

“It wasn’t something we were particularly trying to do but it’s the way it has gone so far and now Richard tells me I have a good eye for tups. We have four currently for our small flock.”

Shire horses, pigs, goats and chickens make up the rest of the livestock under Laura’s charge at what is a Rare Breeds Survival Trust Conservation Farm Park and a Shire Horse Approved Visitor Centre. Laura said they currently have six Shires.

“The history of the Sledmere Wolds Waggoners’ involvement with the First World War means the Shires really do have a part to play for our visitors who are always interested in the story.

“We already used some of the horses for driving and two-year-old Walter who was born here and six-month-old William will both drive in the future.

“We also have two Oxford Sandy & Black sows that produce pigs. All of the sausages they produced would go through the estate shop until Covid hit and our café and shop had to close.

“At present the staff employed on the estate are buying what is produced with plans to reintroduce sales through the shop in future.

“Our goats are Golden Guernseys and they are lovely, friendly animals. The hens include Buff Orpington and French Copper Marans whose eggs all go up to the Sykes family at Sledmere House.

“Our visitors love watching them all. We are looking forward to our new lambing season that starts soon.”