Valais Blacknose: The Yorkshire farm offering an 'up close and personal' experience with 'poster boys and girls' of the sheep world

Claire, whose grandfather, the late Bert Verity was one of Yorkshire’s greatest ever showmen, says the idea emanated from taking their Valais to the Great Yorkshire Show, where they will be again in ten days.

“Wherever we go, we are inundated with people coming to touch them, hugging and kissing them.

"Everyone wants a picture because they are so pretty. When we took them to a wedding fair at York racecourse the organisers told us no-one was going inside because they were all looking at our sheep.

“It made us think what we could do here.

"That’s when we had the idea of creating a picnic and setting up a couple of paddocks with some nice tables and chairs, parasols, straw bales and making a really lovely countryside experience with the sheep as our visitors’ guests, with four of the sheep in the paddock.

"Valais Blacknose are very friendly and love being a part of it all.”

Claire says their idea has captured the imagination of visitors, who are already booking in their droves, and of other businesses who have become part of the experience.

“We’ve the amazing Mama Doreen’s from Harrogate providing the cakes. We’re looking after the coffees and teas in our impressive new Sheep Shack. Brymor are providing ice creams.

"Paul and Rachel of Brymor also have the breed. We’re terming it ‘Having tea with ewe!’ And it is officially called ‘Blooming Sheep’ because there are blooming wildflowers and sunflowers in the next field.

“They’re fun sheep. They will come and join you, they’ll take your napkin off your knee, nibble at your food, if you give them chance. They really are great for wellbeing and will cheer you up.

“They smell amazing too, because we wash them with Persil Non-Bio and a bottle of Comfort. We give them all a warm bath at 36.5 degrees and get their fleeces as white as possible.”

Claire and Chris were childhood sweethearts at Harrogate YFC and are now back together and enjoying life on the farm where Chris is better known in the sheep showing world for his Mashams and he has been very successful. Claire feels her Valais Blacknose are prettier.

“They’re a Swiss breed that have only been in the UK about five years. They made their debut at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2022 and I knew that I needed them in my life, and with Bert being my grandfather sheep are in my blood.

“We have a bit of a problem,” says Chris, tongue-in-cheek. “Because Claire won’t sell any of them.

“Most girls want diamonds, don’t they?” says Claire. “I just wanted these Valais Blacknose. I remember when Chris hitched the trailer on the back of the Land Rover and said we were buying our first couple. I thought this guy’s a keeper. We now have 37 of them and if I had my way we’d have the farm taken over by them, which wouldn’t work economically, but by coming up with ‘Blooming Sheep’ they are at least contributing to the farm income.

High Snape runs to 200 acres. Chris and his brother Alan have 450 in all with a further 250 acres at Menwith Hill plus additional rented land for grazing.

Their mixed farm includes 80 acres of continuous winter wheat, 400 breeding ewes at High Snape and a further 400 at Menwith, plus livery stabling for 21.

“We have Mashams and Mules at home, we put them to the Texel and Suffolk,” says Chris. “Dalesbreds, Swaledales, Teeswaters and Bluefaced Leicesters are at Menwith.

“We sell our fat lambs at Thirsk. We keep all Masham gimmers for ourselves or to sell on at Skipton livestock market.

Chris loves his Mashams, but he understands the interest from others in the Valais.

‘They are good looking sheep. We enjoy showing them all, the Mashams and the Valais. Claire loves showing, as she would coming from her family background, whereas neither my dad or Alan were interested, but they’ve always been supportive.

"I always wanted to win with Mashams at Masham livestock market and at the Great Yorkshire Show. I’ve been successful at Harrogate a few times. Claire has had a first at Wensleydale with a Valais tup lamb, so we’re under way with them too.

Claire is looking forward to the Great Yorkshire Show.

“We bought a lovely new tup from Westmorland and we’ve got some really good lambs this year. We were fortunate to get three pens each for both the Valais and Mashams.

One thing that won’t be happening will be Claire selling any of her Valais at Harrogate or anywhere else and she says it doesn’t matter what is offered.

“We have a black and white Valais called Spiti, my favourite. She is very rare in the Valais Blacknose world as they are all white with black nose. Spitti has black and white all over her body. I can’t show her, because she’s not to the specification for showing but we take her along.

"This man came up to me at the show, just as we’d unloaded them into the pen, and offered me £5000 there and then. Chris was tearing his hair out when I said no.

“But her story is amazing. Chris bought a Mule that we call Ma, who is terrifying.

"We were promised she was going to give birth to the most beautiful lambs you’ve ever seen and when she lambed Showgirl came out, this beautifully marked Valais; Ma had been artificially inseminated with Valais. Chris then became concerned about the twin until this black head came up, and it was Spitti.

"She’s such a character.

“We also have Toothpaste, who’s a Texel-cross but thinks he’s a Valais. This Mule ewe had 3 Texel lambs and Toothpaste has half a white face and half black face.

"We called him Two-Face but my niece Hannah misheard and Toothpaste has now stuck.

“Blooming Sheep starts Saturday 12 July and we’re going to be open three days a week right through to the end of August.

“We will also have a ‘Meet the Sheep’ paddock for those that don’t want 90 minutes in the paddock for afternoon tea, where visitors can have selfies with them.

“It’s what we call a ‘Ewe-nique party’ where we are raising the baa,” says Claire.

“We’re looking at other ideas for on-farm experiences too. Chris shot in Down The Line for England and we have plans for him to teach people who’ve never shot before.”

You can book for Blooming Sheep by going to http://bloomingsheep.com The ninety minute ‘Tea with Ewe’ sessions start at 10am, 12midday and 2pm.