SHEPHERDS’ DELIGHT
Meet the first-generation farmers producing slow-grown lamb and sheepskin rugs on the windswept tors of Dartmoor
First-generation farmers Lewis Steer and Flora Searson produce sheepskin rugs and slow-grown lamb on the windswept tors of Dartmoor – even Prince Charles is a fan
artmoor is waking from its winter slumber. Alongside the resident ponies, three rare sheep breeds roam the rugged hills. Lewis Steer and Flora Searson, the last shepherds to farm all of the moor’s native breeds, are checking on their 800 Whiteface and Greyface Dartmoor, and Devon and Cornwall Longwool with their Border collie, Moss. “The sheep are as much a part of the landscape as the tors,” Flora says.
Lewis and Flora have farmed here for four years, gradually increasing their land and flock. They now rent 300 acres from 16 landlords, working out of a tiny 16th-century granite shed with no running water or electricity. Their ‘farmhouse’ is a flat in Chagford, a market town near the River Teign. Passionate about the environment, they produce slow-grown, grass-fed lamb and supply sheepskin to local makers to turn into interior items such as rugs, doorstops and footstools, as well as bags, hot water bottle covers and mittens, all sold through their business, The Dartmoor Shepherd. Their woolly products attracted so much attention at the 2019 Country Living Christmas Fair that they won the award for best festive stand.
LOVE OF THE LAND
The couple, who are in their twenties, are so at home on the land that it would be natural to assume they come from a farming family, but neither does. Lewis’s parents were greengrocers, Flora’s were teachers. They met aged 16 at a local café in Chagford. Lewis had wanted to be a farmer since he was a child. His parents owned a 13-acre smallholding in Devon and, as a reward for doing well in his GCSES, they gave him three Greyface Dartmoor ewes. He then studied rural land management at the Royal Agricultural University in Gloucestershire, while Flora did a media degree at Bath Spa University. On the side, they built up a flock of 40 sheep, using Lewis’s student overdraft and keeping their animals in a rented field (they now rent the whole farm).
After graduating, the couple came up with the idea of starting their own business. “With no family farm, equipment or guidance, it was very daunting at first,” Flora says, “but we knew we had to give it a go.” Lewis and Flora gradually found land, persuading the owners to rent it to them despite their inexperience. At first, they just bred sheep for meat. Their lambs are pasture-fed and live longer in the field, producing a flavoursome meat known
THIS PAGE The couple check on their 800-strong flock, which includes Devon and Cornwall Longwool OPPOSITE Farming over 300 acres of land often means walking the sheep along roads between fields in adverse conditions with Moss the Border collie
as hogget. “The lambs are slow growing, which we think makes the meat taste better,” Lewis says. “They mature naturally.” Lewis is so dedicated to their sheep that he can identify many of them individually. “They all look different. We’ve gradually learnt their characters.” No pesticides or artificial fertilisers are used on the land, so the fields are full of wild flowers including yellow rattle and wild orchids.
A couple of years ago, the couple started supplying sheepskins to the local tannery to turn into rugs. Then they are sent to local makers to be transformed into products such as cushions and footstools. They sell these through Toast, Joules, their own website and their shop in Chagford, which opened last year. The sheepskins are tanned at Devonia in Buckfastleigh, Britain’s oldest sheepskin tannery. A carpenter in Okehampton also supplies materials for some of their furniture.
Lewis and Flora have relied heavily on financial support, taking advantage of The Land Rover Bursary, which gave them a Land Rover for a year, and a grant from the Prince’s Countryside Fund. And it was through the Fund that Prince Charles invited them to a tea party at Clarence House.
A DAY IN THE LIFE…
But it’s not all about tea parties. “We are farmers and businesspeople,” Flora says. “We can be stocking our shop, planning marketing or attending shows with our products one day and sorting our flock on the moors the next.” Spring is naturally busy, and the rain and wind can be trying. “One night at 3am, we were driving our quad bike and trailer around in a hailstorm trying to get the newborn lambs into our stone shed,” she recalls. “We ran out of space, so we had to borrow our landlord’s horse trailer just so they could shelter.”
Most of the couple’s friends are non-farmers, with office jobs and weekends off, but they often help out when Lewis and Flora have to walk sheep along roads to new fields or are racing against the weather to bring in hay from the meadows.
Encouraged by royal support, the couple are determined to keep going. “We are passionate about growing the numbers of these rare breeds,” Flora says. “Exeter, our nearest city, used to be one of the largest exporters in the world of ‘serge cloth’, a material made using the wool from the same long-wool breeds as our flock. Now, by creating a demand for the wool through our products, we’re offering a lifeline for the breeds – and the sheep have been a lifeline for us, too. They’ve allowed us to fulfil our dreams.”