Farm of the Week: Competing at the shows from tiny Dales plot

They may only have a small acreage in Grassington just above where they live at the aptly named Rooftops on Moor Road, but they are making their mark in the sheep showing world with their Whited Faced Woodlands, and now their Herdwick ewes, after a stuttering start seven years ago.

“I was born at Carlecotes near Penistone and as much as I would have liked to go into farming following on from my grandparents, aunties, uncles and parents in those days, money was hard and I went into Hinchliffe Mill in Holmfirth as a worsted mender,” says Angela.

“I was always going to marry a farmer but then I met Robert at a hunt barn dance for the Pennine Foxhounds.”

Robert’s claim to fame is that his mother was born at what is now Nora Batty’s tea rooms in Holmfirth.

“I used to go there to see my grandparents. My great-grandfather was a farmer but my grandfather was well-known in the area as a landscape gardener on some of the large estates. Angela found herself married to a golfer rather than a farmer and I played a lot. When we were first together she was earning more than I was as an apprentice engineer at Brook Motors in Huddersfield.”

A career in selling machines saw Robert travel the world, visiting 45 countries but the couple, having produced three children, moved to Grassington in 1999 where Angela’s long-held love of farming came to fruition.

“We came here when Robert took on a new job that meant he was flying out of Leeds-Bradford airport regularly and it was easier to be this way on rather than in Holmfirth in order to make the morning flights. We managed to buy the house at a bargain price. It was in a right mess and we’ve done such a lot with it since.”

The evolution into becoming respected sheep breeders came somewhat inadvertently.

“We bought four acres at an auction in 2003 with the intention of having a pony but that didn’t happen due to a problem with stabling. That’s when the idea came to have sheep.

“It was a good friend of ours Clive Mitchell from our original homeland of Holmfirth and Penistone who told us we should get some sheep. We bought half a dozen White Faced Woodlands that are known as the Penistone sheep, which seemed quite appropriate for us and for me particularly in going back to my roots.

“Clive brought them up here and 13 years on we still have one of those ewes, Nancy. She had a lamb this year too.

“The following year Clive told us about a tup that was likely to go for slaughter that he thought might be able to do a job for us with our ewes and he gave him to us - so we called him Clive. We had him for three years and he helped us considerably in the quality of our lambs.”

It was another spurious acquisition that brought them a different strand to their still fledgling sheep breeding enterprise.

“It was a farmer friend from just down the road here in Grassington that gave us a pet lamb with those immortally optimistic words ‘I think it’ll die but you might as well give it a go’. We did.

“It was a Swaledale X, which we think had been crossed with a Blue Faced Leicester so that it was a Mule. We crossed it with our White Faced Woodland tup and had some cracking sheep and butchers’ lambs off it. We’ve still got some of the ewes and we cross them with the White Faced Woodland every year.”

Showing sheep at agricultural shows had not necessarily been on their agenda but seven years ago Robert and Angela’s competitive streak kicked in. It wasn’t exactly an overnight success.

“We did a bit of what you might call naïve showing because we thought we’d like to show our sheep and felt we had some that looked nice. It was only after a short while doing shows at Honley and Holmfirth that it dawned on us that everybody was winning apart from us. That’s when we started listening and watching more intently. We then knew what to look for and what the judges were looking for such as bright eyes, good teeth, square backs, strong legs and a good jacket.

“That’s when we also realised we needed a much better tup.”

Two years ago Angela and Robert attended the Annual Bretton Sale for White Faced Woodlands at Holmfirth Mart. They purchased a tup called Sunny for a substantial sum and during a spell away from showing they established better breeding and developed a more informed approach.

Robert had also bought Angela a Herdwick ewe as a birthday gift just prior to last year’s show season.

“I just want to win one rosette at the Great Yorkshire Show before I die,” Angela recalls saying.

They did far more than that as they entered their one Herdwick at Harrogate last year, showed her before the White Faced Woodland classes, and she came back with a fourth place rosette.

The Cramptons’ White Faced Woodlands then entered the fray and won first prize with Sunny and first prize with a gimmer lamb as Sunny went on to be named breed champion.

“We were absolutely staggered,” says Robert. “This year we’ve already had another fantastic season. We’ve had reserve breed champion and best tup lamb at the Great Yorkshire and we’ve taken breed championships at Honley and North Yorkshire County Show, plus breed champion and reserve last week at Ryedale as well as a whole clutch of firsts.”

Their farming operation may only be small but there’s no doubting the couple are making their mark.