There is something very appealing about Black Wensleydales. Their long curling forelocks and clean black faces give them a Rastafarian look which always attracts much attention. There are records of a totally black flock being kept in the early twentieth Century to decorate the front field of the owners country estate! Traditionally blacks were considered unacceptable by farmers as a black fleece was of little value. Recently, with the increase in demand for natually coloured wools, the black Wensleydale fleece is listed in the wool board schedule as one of the highest priced Black lambs would be thrown occasionally by white parents. This is because the black gene is recessive. Very simply, the sheep carry two colour genes:

B,B	Black sheep
W,W	White sheep
W,B	White sheep ( because the white colour is dominant)

So, theoretically the progeny of two white sheep could quite possibly be black.

However, the Wensleydale Association now runs two registers, one for white sheep and another for black. The "black" register contains sheep of all colours other than white namely, light silver, shades of grey and black- and also white sheep which have thrown a black lamb, showing that they carry a black gene. The advantage of this system is twofold - the society are acknowledging the demand for, and promoting, the coloured Wensleydale fleeces, and secondly, any purchaser of a white ram for crossing purposes can be more or less guaranteed that it will throw only white lambs.

Lambs born very black often turn grey by their second year. Our original black ram, Scotston Moor stayed very black and his line tend to keep their colour. Initially, we were fortunate to get several black lambs from the white flock which gave us a broader base from which to breed. Now the flock is completely separate from the whites. We use several of our own rams. West End Cole, especially, sired a series of excellent lambs, in particular Warrior and Unity.

West End Warrior

In 1999 West End Warrior took the "Best Black Wensleydale" cup at the Rare Breeds Show at Stoneleigh as a ram lamb. Warrior also was Reserve Longwool Champion in the Rare Breeds section at Masham the following year. In 1998, West End Unity took the same cup as a lamb and was Reserve Breed Champion at that show. He, in turn, sired a ewe lamb, the cup winner for us in 2000. Fleeces from Cole’s lambs have won many prizes, and several lambs have sold at top price in their class.