Devon Support Group                

9th to 11th June 2006 - Friday until Sunday afternoon at the Sheldon Centre and Fowlescombe in Devon

This annual workshop is held on the Isle of Man every third year and in between at different locations around the UK mainland. I (Hillary) was invited to host the June 2006 workshop in Devon, as a focus for Manx breeders in the West of England. In fact 24 Manx enthusiasts traveled over from the Isle of Man, the east of England and the Midlands to join with breeders from across Devon.

 

We had decided to focus on both wool and meat production, and began with a morning of shearing, inspecting and discussing the fleeces on my flock of sheep (Manx sheep retain the ability to shed their fleeces annually but thanks to the cold Spring most of them had kept the majority on them!). The sheep are basically brown but there is a wide variation in both the colour and the type of fleece, from quite primitive, hairy fleeces to longer staple soft and crimpy fleeces appreciated by spinners.

 

The Natural Fibre Company has recently relocated to Launceston from Lampeter, and specializes in processing relatively small quantities of fleece and fibre, particularly from rare and coloured breeds of sheep. Sue Blacker showed us what to discard and what to look out for when choosing fleeces for processing so as to get the best end results in yarn or fabrics. Barbara Willis showed us what to look for when assessing quality for hand spinning. We had a range of fleeces from different breeds to examine, including a good, bad and indifferent example from the Gotland sheep bred by Sue and Barbara. I think we all leant a lot, and will be looking at the fleeces of our own sheep with fresh eyes in future.

 

After lunch and a lot more chat about sheep in general and Manx in particular, the workshop moved on to visit Richard and Barbara Barker's flocks of Manx and Hebridean sheep in South Devon. They had arranged for their butcher to demonstrate cutting, jointing and presentation of a Manx carcass. I stayed at home to help Sam complete shearing my own flock, but I gather from those who went to Wayne's butchery demonstration that it was so appetizing he made them all feel hungry and ready for the cream tea which followed!

 

Sadly we were not able to visit North Down Farm at Yeoford, as this is no longer open to the public. Instead, some of us went to Coldharbour Mill at Uffculme for a tour of the restored Victorian woolen mill. Seeing the factory operations for woolen and worsted spinning and then weaving the yarns into cloth completed the story from "sheep to shoulder", with the added bonus of a photographic display, exhibition of Second World War memorabilia and the enchanting Culm Valley tapestry. Coldharbour Mill also offers a service whereby your washed fleeces are machine carded into slivers ready for spinning or weaving. More information on their website at www.coldharbourmill.org.uk.