Cotswold sheep is a breed of domestic sheep originating in the Cotswold hills of the southern midlands of England. It is a dual-use breed providing both meat and wool. As of 2009, this long-woollen breed is relatively rare and is categorised in the UK as “minority” by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.
Cotswold sheep are usually calm and friendly. They mostly have white faces, but their faces are occasionally mottled with some light grey or tan hairs. Small black spots may occur on the “points” (non-woolly portions of legs, ears, and face), but the wool itself is white. Kemps (coarse hairs) are normally absent from the wool.
Cotswold hooves are normally black, but may sometimes be streaked with light or translucent colour. Footrot is very uncommon in this breed. Cotswold rams occasionally have small scurs but they do not have horns.
Cotswold sheep do not have the tight-flocking instinct of western range sheep, preferring to spread out and graze enclosed pastures more uniformly. Some strains of the breed are not as prone to internal parasites as others provided their grazing is not excessively short.
History
United States
By 1831, this breed had been introduced to the United States by Christopher Dunn of near Albany, New York. Importation records of Cotswold only date back to that era.
While Christopher Dunn imported only one Cotswold ram to cross with his English Leicester ewes. The resulting crosses were so impressive that they prompted William Henry Sotham (funded by the Hon. Erastus Corning, also of Albany) to make extensive imports of Cotswold sheep from the flock of William Hewer of Northleach, Gloucestershire, England.
Another early contributor to American flocks was the Charles Barton Flock, of Fyfield, Northleach, England, whose owner had family records of Cotswold pedigrees going back to 1640 or before.
Like other longwool breeds, the Cotswold was often used for crossbreeding in early times. By 1914 over 760,000 had been recorded in the US and Canada by the American Cotswold Record Association. The breed was seen as a way of adding staple length to other breeds while not reducing the size of the carcase or thickness of wool.
The main reason for its early popularity over other lustre longwools in the USA was because it did not require “high feeding” (in other words, large amounts of grain) to make good growth.
According to Sheep! magazine editor Nathan Griffith’s book on the breed, the largest recorded representative of the Cotswold breed in America was Broadfield’s Pride, owned by Charles Mattocks during the 1870s. This sheep was born in 1870 on the farm of William Lane of Gloucestershire, England, and attained the enormous weight of 445 lb (202 kg). Several of the lambs he sired attained weights of 280 to 300 lb (130 to 140 kg) by one-year-old.
Black Cotswold
In 1989, the Black Cotswold was recognised as a separate breed in the USA. In that year the Black Cotswold Society was formed to assist farmers in propagating the breed. The Black Cotswold can be any colour, including white if it is related to black sheep. The Black Cotswold is not recognised or bred in the UK. In over 130 years of registering Cotswold sheep, no sheep registered with the American Cotswold Record Association has descended from coloured ancestors.
Britain
Cotswold sheep have been noted as commonly having a slightly golden coloured wool since the days of Drayton and Camden in England (circa late 16th century to early 17th century), with dark colours being exceedingly rare. This trait gave them the nickname of the “Golden Fleece Breed”.
Some old-time black “Cotswolds” historically harks back in some form or another to crosses like those originally noted in the flock of William Large of the early 19th century in England. Those sheep were the product of extensive crossing with English Leicesters, a breed more often known for possessing coloured wool.
Roman
In July 1964 a Roman-sculpted replica of a sheep’s head was described as having been unearthed near Bibury Church in Gloucestershire, England. A photo of this sculpture is on page 6 of the booklet The Cotswold Sheep. The resemblance to modern Cotswold sheep is striking.
Some authorities claim (Elwes, 1893) the Cotswold breed was already in the Cotswold Hills when the Romans got there circa 54 B.C.