The Marsden Flock
The Marsden Flock represents one of the original three foundation lines of the Portland breed. Alan Marsden recognised their importance in the 1960’s and 70’s when only 30 or so Portland ewes survived. The line has been preserved since his death by his widow Joan and by Gini FitzGerald. In 1998 Gini passed the iconic flock number o24 to me to continue the foundation line, breeding these small, finely boned examples of the breed with their exceptional fleeces using five families to maintain the variety in the gene pool. The Marsden and Waterman sheep run together but are bred separately.
The Waterman Flock
The Waterman flock 01383 was founded in 1988 with the purchase of two in-lambs ewes from Tim Ash, followed by a ram Bridges George from the RBST's Show and Sale at Stoneleigh. Some Marsden ewes joined the flock soon afterwards, and a Southover ram (Mozart) was used in both Marsden and Waterman flocks. The Waterman sheep include all three original Portland lines; Field/Marsden, Stubbs/Clutton and Whipsnade together with some Harpur-Crewe but none of the more recently introduced Calke line .