Fowlescombe Farm lamb

About Fowlescombe Farm.

The story of our hidden valley starts in 1537 with the building of Fowlescombe Manor. In the centuries that followed the farm grew into a thriving estate, in its heyday encompassing several farmsteads and employing large numbers of people.

With the decline of many traditional rural industries in the 19th century, the manor house, its out buildings and the sweeping landscape gardens were abandoned and fell into disrepair. Today our animals roam its meadows and streams, ancient woodlands and ivy covered bridges, set against the back drop of the ruined manor.

In January 2019 the Owens family took over the farm. Since then we have started to revitalise the estate, developing buildings, skills and activities on the farm, re-invigorating the 400-year-old kitchen gardens, introduced a number of new rare breed animals and added Pasture for life to our organic status.

 

Fowlescombe farm

Fowlescombe farm is on the edge of Dartmoor and has been certified organic for over 20 years. The farm sits nestled in an almost hidden valley that contains the ruins of a manor house that dates back to 1537.

The farm was taken over by the Owen family in 2019 and had been certifed organic for the past 20 years.

As well as organic certification the farm is Pasture for Life certified and is being farmed in a truly regnerative way, revitalising the natural systems and restoring the varied ecoststems on the land by integrating cattle, sheep and pigs into rotations.

Rare breed

The sheep

The sheep are rare breed pedigree Manx Loaghtan. They are a small native breed and compliment our cattleby both sharing and rotating fields.

The Manx Loaghtan is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheepbreeds, and descends from the primitive sheep once found throughout Scotland, the Hebrides, and Shetland Islands. The word Loaghtan comes from the Manxword 'slugh dhoan', which means mouse-brown and describes the colour of the sheep. In 2008, the meat received EU recognition and protection under the Protected Designation of Origin scheme, which requires products with a regional name to originate in the named region. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust has characterised the Loaghtan as "at risk". By the 1950s there were only 43 surviving specimens. 

Manx National Heritage developed two healthy flocks. These have given rise to commercial flocks on the Isle of Man, United Kingdom and Jersey. Even so, today there are still fewer than 1,500 registered breeding females.

The herd at Fowlescombe is amongst the largest of this breed and as such is an important genetic ark. The sheep are a fantastic sight both as a roaming herd and individually with their yellow eyes and long necks.

Our head of meat Tom Cripps had this to say about the lamb:

"Ok, so the first thing i noticed was lovely milky white fat with good cover, you can see it down the back as well, a lot of grass fed lamb can be really lean but with these you can actually feel that there is decent fat cover through the loin and on the racks. The have really nice muscle conformation, t hey have that nice ‘v’ shape between the legs but are not overly large so you’re not going to end up with huge legs… so a really nice size, really nice shape, great back cover…. the colour of the meat itself is a realy nice dark ruby red when you cut into it."

Butterflied Leg of Lamb (Marinated or Plain) Lamb Shoulder - Bone In Lamb Leg - Bone In Digital gift card Lamb Barnsley Chops

Try this incredible lamb

The best tasting lamb

When we first tasted the lamb from Fowlescombe the word that came to everyone was 'clean'. The meat has a very clean flavour with sweet herbal notes that come from a very pure fat covering.

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