The Yorkshire shepherdess making rugs from her own sheep wool
Lucy Duffy of Thistlebank Rare Breeds in Barwick in Elmet put her days of long hours on the road behind her by changing her lifestyle from motorways and car travel to the countryside and animals and says she’s now in a far better place.
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Hide Ad“All the travelling was very tiring,” says Lucy. “I was stressed that I was missing things like breakfast times with my husband and our twin girls, missing part of their growing up. I’d get home, I’d be straight on to emails to do with my work. I just thought why am I doing it, why am I not back outdoors.
In her teens, Lucy had followed her dream job of working with horses and becoming a riding instructor in the nearby village of Thorner but had left the horse world in her early 20s to achieve a better income and had been successful in her career that had taken her into a quite different world of training NVQ assessors, but the countryside had remained at her heart and four years ago she went back to it.
“I started my dog walking business Leads & Tweeds,” says Lucy. “I went back to riding, with my daughters, and then I bought some sheep.
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Hide Ad“I’d always been put off having sheep because of the financial side, thinking I’d need to buy a smallholding, but when I talked with a friend it opened my eyes as I found that it was the same principle as having horses, that you rent some land and then run a flock on it. I then found that someone had land to rent near where I live.
Lucy bought her first Greyface Dartmoor sheep in July 2022, became a committee member for the York branch of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in September that year, and bought another two that same month. She now has a flock of 18 of which she currently has 10 breeding ewes.
“I had my first lambs in April 2023, just two, and this year’s second lambing season brought me another eight having put six ewes in-lamb. Seven ewes will go into lamb this year with our own tup Eric, who we also used last year.
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Hide Ad“I’m so grateful for all the help I’ve received from people like Judith Hawkhead of the RBST who has introduced me to many others, and to David Moss, a village neighbour who works at Lotherton Hall and Temple Newsam.”
Lucy says just having the sheep has already proved very therapeutic and that her daughters are benefitting too.
“From my days of being on the road all the time to sitting in a field with some sheep I now feel so much healthier, with fresh air in my lungs, and I’m enjoying our children growing up in that environment.
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Hide Ad“Our girls had already shown an interest in farming and my thought was that we could end up spending money on computer games, latest technologies, designer labels or we could actually think about showing them a different way of life, learning more outside.
“The girls would also like to show the sheep, so next year we’re going to try and give that a go at local shows rather than breed specific shows just to get out and about.”
Lucy decided on Greyface Dartmoors having looked for a longwool breed that would be right for providing wool so that she could go into rug making, as well as being a docile, friendly breed her girls could also manage.
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Hide Ad“I like working with natural material. I like the story in the background. I can knit and I can sew, and thought I’d make rugs.
“Once I’d decided on my breed of sheep, specifically a longwool, I had investigated whether the wool would be worthwhile using for rugs. I had started attending summer shows and at Tockwith Show I met the York & District Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers and became a member.
“The chair of the guild introduced me to peg loom weaving as the best way to use the fleece I would get and a lady called Margaret said she’d spend a day showing me how to do it. I came away with a peg loom, as she had just bought another larger one.”
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Hide AdClearly not one to let the grass grow under her feet, keen to learn and also keen to keep costs down by handling everything herself initially, Lucy turned next to shearing.
“I taught myself to hand shear and have just done all 18 sheep this summer. I now know it’s about 8 kilos per sheep. Then I washed all the fleeces which took forever. I’ve kept them all separately so that I know which fleece is from which sheep.
"Washing, carding, brushing each individual lock out takes an age. Having gone through the process I’m now in talks with a mill to see if I can speed up the process after hand shearing.
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Hide Ad“I’m currently still at the protype stage with my rugs to see how it all works, but I’m on with the third.”
None of this has dulled Lucy’s enthusiasm for being with her sheep and she’s looking forward to growing the flock to 15 breeding ewes on her six acres.
“I know that at some point I will have to send something off to go into the food chain but I am also looking to sell to other breeders.
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Hide Ad"At the moment my ram lambs need to go for inspection for whether they will make pedigree rams. Until that happens in November I won’t know quite what their future is, but I’m not in this bubble of I’ve got to fill this field with sheep.”
Lucy has gone into the sheep world with her eyes open. Her main income comes from her dog walking. Husband Chris has his job too. She’s getting all she needs from having the sheep in how they have affected her life for the better, but she’s a Yorkshire girl too.
“I’m never going to make money off this. It’s a hobby, but it needs to self-fund. I want to stay where I am as well, I don’t want extra acreage, but I’d like to get my sheep to the standard I want.
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Hide Ad“Our daughters Nancy and Molly are outdoors enjoying a really nice life looking after the sheep with me and I have the satisfaction of going to see my sheep every day, even when there’s snow in the fields.
“I don’t want to be a big commercial shepherdess or anything like that. I’ve invested in a breed, I’m aiming to do something significant with it, I like that it is a rare breed and I’ve got my life back!”
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