History of Hampshire Sheep
as told by: Ronald R. Pullin

The Hampshire's Origin:  Early Development

 

As is the case with the Down sheep breeds, the Hampshire was developed in England, gaining its name from the county in which it originated, Hampshire.  Located in south-central England, with its rolling, light, chalky land, to the east lay Sussex; to the north was Berkshire; and Wiltshire and Dorsetshire lay on its western boundary.  The English Channel, with the Isle of Wright across the Solent, forms Hampshire's southern boundary.

 

The Wiltshire and Berkshire Knot were the prominent sheep in the country, at that time.  Both types were used for their wool and improving the light soil by fertilization.  The Wiltshire was described as a white-faced, large, imposing-looking animal with long legs, high withers, sharp spine, big head, roman nose, and horns turned back behind the ears and cheeks.  They were well adapted to grazing on the cultivated land by day and traveling several miles to feed on the closely-cropped, down-land pastures by night.  Except for their dark faces and legs, the Berkshire Knots resembled the Wiltshire very closely, being of a similar size and weight; and the two breeds flocked together very well.

 

In the early 19th century, the Southdown, with the improvements made by Ellman, was rapidly replacing the Wiltshire and Berkshire Knot.  They would probably have done so completely, had it not been for the extra size in both these breeds.  Several Hampshire farmers, preferred in this large-scale, hardy, early-maturing sheep, began crossing Wiltshires and Berkshire Knots with Southdowns.  By 1819, the last flock of the old Wiltshire breed disappeared, leaving in its place a sort of modified Southdown.  But, these were not succinctly uniform in type to deserve the distinction of being called a breed.  It was not until 1835 that the Hampshire actually took its general form as we know it.  But, even then, it still had to be perfected to the degree of uniformity where breed characteristics would be passed on regularly to the offspring.

 

William Humphrey of Newbury, Hampshire, is credited with the greatest success in setting the Hampshire type; and he has often been referred to as the Father of the Modern Hampshire, due to his notable success.  He started his flock in 1824 with ewes of the Wiltshire/Southdown cross, obtained from three top producers of this type.  They were crossbreds, certainly, but the very best type of improvement over the old Wiltshire and Berkshire Knot. They were referred to as West Country Downs.

Humphrey also bought and used rams that were the same breeding as the ewes he purchased. He was not the imaginative breeder Ellman was but a systematic breeder, as he never turned an untested ram in with his ewes. He selected a few he felt were his best; and, if the resulting lambs were the type he wanted, he would use the ram on all his ewes the following year. This was a slow process; but it took a certain amount of gamble out of his breeding program, for he always had one ram working that he trusted. This same thoroughness was carried into all he did; and, though he did not have Ellman's ram selection imagination, he was capable of recognizing the improvements he was achieving in his lambs.

Humphrey was quite content with his West Country Downs; and, had it not been for a chance to visit to a major sheep show in Oxford in about 1830, the Hampshire breed might have taken a lot longer to emerge. During this visit to the Royal Agricultural Society Show in Oxford, Humphrey became enthused by the beauty and size of the Cotswold breed. Upon inquiring how the sheep were brought to such a standard of perfection, he learned that a Leicester ram was crossed with Cotswold ewes. The biggest and best lambs were kept for breeding.

Following his usual systematic thought process, he decided that, if he crossed a first-rate Southdown ram on his West Country ewes, he would achieve size plus quality in his sheep. Humphrey, therefore, wrote to Jonas Webb, then considered the top Southdown producer, and asked him to select a ram, explaining what he hoped to achieve. Webb selected the ram he felt would accomplish Humphrey's goal and sent it to him. Humphrey was so pleased with the resulting lambs that he went to Webb's farm and selected two more rams himself. He used them both in his normal manner, testing on a few ewes first. But this time, he was not satisfied with results, abandoning both rams and never using them again in his flock. Later, he again asked Webb to select a ram for him, his fourth; and this, like Webb's first choice, produced the type of lambs Humphrey wanted. These were probably the only two Southdown rams he used in his flock—at least there are no records of him buying more. He did, however, introduce 25 Southdown ewes into his flock about ten years after he started breeding Hampshires, always practicing his same test methods. In this manner, he was able to produce the modern-type Hampshire. Later, he moved to line breeding, crossing his own rams and ewes back on each other in the third and fourth generations.

 

In 1868, William Humphrey died; and his flock was disbursed to breeders all over the country. Breed improvement leadership passed to James Rawlence, of Bulridge, Wiltshire, Humphrey's great friend and some-time partner. By the time Rawlence began his career in 1863, the Hampshire down was a definite Breed, having been recognized in 1857. He took exactly the opposite approach to Humphrey's to improve his flock. By using Southdown ewes selected for their size and scale to cross with West Country Down rams, he achieved very similar results. There is evidence that Rawlence could have used some of Humphrey's Hampshire rams on his own ewes, thus making faster improvements than did Humphrey who systematically waited for the third or fourth generations before breeding back.

 

The Hampshire breed spread to surrounding counties in England. However, the most progress was made when demand for quality ewes capable of reaching killing weight earlier than the Southdown arose in other countries, particularly the United States.

 

Naturally, other breeders later contributed a great deal to improving the Hampshire breed in England. The English flock making the greatest imprint on American Hampshires was the Blendworth flock owned by the Goldsmiths. This flock furnished many of the best rams used in American flocks during the breed's rapid United States expansion. James Flower's flock, Salisbury, Hampshire, also produced good sheep brought into the United States. In later years, other flocks furnished outstanding seed stock. However, perhaps the most noted was H. A. Benyon's flock, Reading, Berkshire, who bred the ram "Englefield Swell." This ram's best son and grandsons were imported into the United States and vastly improved the American Hampshire.

 

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