A farmer paid almost £19,000 for a Herdwick sheep at Mitchells recent autumn sale – a record price for the breed.
Reginald D Hodgkiss, of Lanarkshire, bought the shearling tup from Anthony Hartley, Turner Hall, Seathwaite, for 18,000gns – around £18,900.
Having kept just a few Herdwicks for a number of years, Mr Hodgkiss decided to keep the breed in a more serious way and so set out to buy some of the best rams and females available at the traditional autumn sales held at Cockermouth.
He went on to acquire more than 130 Herdwick females and four rams in total.
One of the other tups cost him 10,000gns, the old breed record price.
