Animal Magic

Adam Henson’s Cotswold sheep

- Octavia Pollock 

OF the many native breeds at his Cotswold Farm Park, the long-wooled local sheep are among Adam Henson’s favourites. ‘When we were children, my dad [park founder and TV presenter Joe] gave us each a breed to teach us about farming and conservation,’ he remembers. ‘My sister Libby [a rare-breed expert] hurt her back in a fall from her pony, so she sold it and put the money into Cotswold sheep.

‘It’s believed the Cotswolds were named after sheep,’ says Mr Henson. ‘Cote means enclosure, wold means hill.’ The value of the wool, known as ‘golden fleece’, drove the wealth of the region: ‘It was said English wool was the best in