A PEDIGREE sheep breeder from Cleveland is enjoying her most successful season to date.

Eleanor Stokeld's Border Leicester flock swept the board at the recent Kelso sheep show and sale and they have taken supreme championships at every other show they have been to this year - not bad for an enterprise which started as a hobby.

Mrs Stokeld, whose Doulton Flock is based on a 14-acre smallholding at Old Nunthorpe, between Stokesley and Great Ayton, ran an equestrian business until a car crash meant she could no longer ride.

Instead, she bought two pet lambs from the Blue Cross centre, followed by two pedigree Border Leicesters - Martha and Minnie - from Lanark. They won her over and the following year she bought eight pedigree ewes from a breeder.

"He had bought a ram for 8,000gns and let me send my ewes to him for nothing, he was so generous," said Mrs Stokeld, who now has a 50-ewe flock, with 25 ewe lambs and 25 ram lambs, and who now rents a further 20 acres.

After three years, she bought her own ram, Kilphin Gentleman Jim, from Lanark for 600gns. He has proved a wonderful buy producing excellent offspring, taking many awards and with sons exported to Holland.

Two of the offspring were prominent at Kelso, where the Doulton entry topped the averages, with seven levelling at £919. Two others by Doulton Daredevil also fetched more than £1,000.

It was Mrs Stokeld's second outing to Kelso, which attracted a total of 7,000 sheep, 92 of which were Border Leicesters.

She took the breed champion and reserve honours, and the award for the best pen of three. She also achieved the day's third top price of £1,400 for the pre-sale champion, an ARR/ARR shearling son of Kilphin Gentleman Jim out of a home-bred ewe by Glenside Grandee.

Mrs Stokeld became the first holder of the Balshando Memorial Quaich for gaining the championship.

Jim also sired the reserve champion which was first in his class as a lamb at the East of England and Great Yorkshire Shows last year. He sold for £1,200.

Mrs Stokeld has taken the supreme championship at this year's East of England, Lincoln, and Great Yorkshire shows, where she also took the supreme fleece titles. She was also supreme champion at last weekend's Masham sheep fair.

The Border Leicester is one of the oldest sheep breeds in the country, dating back to 1767 when the Culley brothers introduced the breed into Northumberland.

Powerfully built, the white-faced, prick-eared sheep are known as the sheep industry's "great improver". They fell out of favour in this country for some years, but are now attracting great interest, particularly from commercial men.

In the early years they were widely exported to Australia and New Zealand where they are still very strong. In Australia, the Border Leicester/Merino cross female is the leading prime lamb mother and there are 990 registered Border Leicester breeders.

They can also be found in South Africa and more recently they have gone to France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, America, British Guiana, India, Japan, Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

Mrs Stokeld has also exported a ram to the Isle of Texel, the first ram of the breed to go into Holland which went to one of that country's biggest flocks.

The rams are said to be ideal for improving the quality of meat from upland and mountain ewe flocks while the ewes are in demand as breeding stock on the low ground.

Most common are the Scotch and Welsh Half-Breds, bred from Cheviot and Welsh Mountain ewes respectively. The crossbred progeny is said to show a strong uniformity, important for selling both butchers' and breeding stock.

The ewes are easy lambing and the newly-born crossbred lambs have a high survival rate in the harshest of climates. The rams are considered to transmit the characteristics of rapid growth and prolificacy, carcase conformation and milkiness

"We have had a wonderful season this year, we have been at it for eight years and I think everything has just come right," said Mrs Stokeld, "They were in very good condition."

She is helped by John Sylvester, who has ten ewes himself, and who looks after the day-to-day running of the flock.

Mrs Stokeld established a breed web site - www.borderleicester.com - six years ago which has proved a success and she has enjoyed increased sales herself.