In the summer of 1995 our love affair with sheep began when, whilst holidaying in North Devon, we were asked to bottle feed three orphaned lambs. Snowie, Liquorice and Porridge quickly became dear to our hearts and regular return visits to our holiday destination were made in order to maintain our contact with them.
As the autumn moved closer, so did the prospect of them being sent to market, the reality of which was heart-breaking. In desperation we approached the farmer and asked if we could purchase the lambs and keep them on his land. To our utter delight he agreed and the flock was born.
Little did we know then that, as a result of this moment, nearly thirty years later our lives would have been completely transformed!
During the course of four years the flock gradually grew. As visits to our holiday destination became ever more frequent orphaned and sick lambs, together with ill ewes, which would otherwise have died, were adopted by us.
By the spring of 1999 we had built up a small flock, and the time had come to seriously consider relocating to North Devon to take on the full time care and ownership of the sheep that we had come to love so dearly. However, it took the arrival of Rupert in the spring of 2000, a physically disabled lamb, to be the driving force behind our eventual move. Rupert lived at our home in Sussex for a number of months whilst he received veterinary care for joint-ill and osteoporosis. It quickly became apparent that he would never be able to return to the fields with our ‘fostered flock’ and likewise he could not live in a small suburban garden indefinitely.
With a suitable property finally found and a move imminent, Foot and Mouth shockingly struck the country. A period of great concern for the survival of our sheep was made worse by the fact that Rupert was incarcerated in Sussex as a movement ban was put upon all livestock. Thankfully, he was eventually moved to North Devon in October 2001 and was shortly joined, on the night of a blue moon, by the rest of our flock.
By this time the flock had grown to 72 as old, sick ewes destined for slaughter gradually joined our flock from the farm on which they were fostered. Sadly Rupert lived for just a brief time at Howley Park, but his memory will live on forever in the work that Fleecehaven now does. Had it not been for him, it is unlikely that Fleecehaven would have come into being.
During the winter of 2000 further sheep joined the flock and increasingly the work that we were doing with sheep became known in the wider community. Eventually, in January 2005, it was decided to officially set up Fleecehaven as a charity and in August 2005 we were granted charitable status.
Our only wish is that the work of Fleecehaven will allow us to continue promoting humane behaviour towards sheep and allows those sheep that come into our care to live out their natural life knowing nothing but love. Sheep are such wonderful, sentient beings who experience family and friendship bonds as strongly as any human. We know that saving a sheep won’t save the world but, for that sheep, the world changes forever.