It was a visit to the Cotswold Farm Park more than 20 years ago that kick-started my interest in rare breeds in all their myriad variety. Opened in 1971 by Joe Henson, one of the founders of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, the Cotswold Farm Park was the first of the RBST’s ‘Approved Centres’ and is home to more than 50 breeding flocks and herds of native British farm animals.
These days the farm park at Guiting Power, near Cheltenham, is a big tourist attraction and probably better known as 'Adam's Farm' as seen on BBC 1's Countryfile programme.
We took the guide book from our original visit with us, much to the delight of older members of staff, who spotted friends and family in early photographs featured in the guide.
Many things have changed since my first visit – there is a bistro-style restaurant selling tasty dishes made using local produce, a shop, and a play area for kids – but the rare breeds, which Joe and his son Adam have worked so hard to preserve, remain at the heart of the farm.
It is a great attraction for schools – and the groups of children at the farm on the day we were there were lucky enough to watch the arrival of a donkey foal.
What I wasn’t expecting to witness was the farm’s ‘pyramid of sheep’ show.
Sadly you don’t get to see acrobatic sheep performing tricks on the back of a motorcycle as seen in Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave. This show is slightly more serious, but just as entertaining. It provides a visual tour through the development of our native sheep breeds, from their primitive beginnings to today’s commercial money-makers.
Stars of the event are the farm’s well-trained group of rams, who obviously enjoy meeting their public. The ‘pyramid’ is the ram’s stage which, encouraged by a bit of feed, they leap on, one-by-one, to strut their stuff.
The show begins with the primitive Soay ram, called Samuel, before moving on to Bronze Age North Ronaldsay sheep, Shetland sheep from the Iron Age, before moving on to the well-known Cotswold sheep, said to have been brought to this country by the Romans, then the Viking age Hebridean sheep, and the still quite rare rare Norfolk Horn, first seen in post-conquest Norman Britain.
It is said that the ancestors of the attractive Portland breed swam ashore from wrecked ships of the Spanish Armada, while the attractive multi-coloured Jacob breed, which may have originated in Syria, has huge horns and a fine fleece much sought-after by spinners and weavers.
The show ended with the arrival of the chunky Texel ram, today’s top commercial breed which produces fast-growing, meaty lambs .
I have to say that of all the fine chaps on show, I fell for Bill the Portland , with his foxy red fleece and calm demeanour. The Jacob may have a fine fleece, but its spear-like horns would make handling very difficult.
This was confirmed by Matt, our host for the sheep show, who admitted that shearers don’t like the hefty horns (they can have up to four) which are a definite threat to their wedding-tackle during the job of clipping the valuable fleece. Doesn’t bear thinking about!
The Cotswold Farm Park is well worth a visit, even if you have just a passing interest in farm animals and farming. Visit the new website at www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk
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