The Bluefaced Leicester is a British breed of longwool sheep. It originated in north-east England in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, and derives from the white-faced Border Leicester, with some influence from the blue-coloured Wensleydale and possibly also from the Teeswater. It was bred specifically for use as a crossing sire to be used on ewes of hill sheep breeds to produce mules. By about 1920 it was known either as the Bluefaced or as the Hexham Leicester, for the town of Hexham in Northumberland.
History
The Bluefaced Leicester originated in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in the north-east of England, mainly in the valleys of the Tyne and Wear rivers and in parts of Cumberland, to the west of the Pennines. In that area a preference had developed – in rams used for cross-breeding – for a dark skin, rather than the pale skin of the Border Leicester, which at that time was the principal crossing sire. Bluefaced sheep were bred from Border Leicester stock, with some influence from the blue-skinned Wensleydale and possibly also from the Teeswater. By the 1920s these were well established and were known either as the Bluefaced Leicester or as the Hexham Leicester, so named for the town of Hexham in Northumberland.
A breed association, the Bluefaced Leicester Sheep Breeders Association, was formed in 1962 or 1963. At about this time there were some ewes of breeding age; by the end of the twentieth century that number had risen to almost .
Small numbers have been exported; there a few hundred head in the United States, while numbers in Canada, Holland and Ireland are unknown or negligible.
Characteristics
It is a large sheep, among the tallest of British breeds, and long in the body: ewes stand some at the withers, rams about ; average body weights are and respectively. It is naturally polled; the head is broad, with a markedly convex profile and long upward-pointing ears. The head and legs are without wool; the characteristic blue colour of the face results from the blue-grey skin showing through the fine white hair that covers it.
The wool is of longwool type, forming long curled ringlets; the fleece is light and fine, markedly different from that of the Border Leicester or Wensleydale, and the skin is delicate. The sheep may need shelter during the winter months.
Use
In the dominant British system of stratification, Bluefaced rams are put over ewes of hill sheep breeds to produce mules, which are then bred to a terminal sire, resulting in a three-way cross. The ewe is most often a Blackface, and the resulting Scotch Mule predominates in commercial sheep breeding. Other Bluefaced Leicester mule crosses are the Cheviot Mule (with South Country Cheviot or North Country Cheviot ewes); the Exmoor Mule (with Exmoor Horn); the Highland Mule (with Scottish Blackface or Blackface × Swaledale cross); the North of England Mule (with Northumberland-type Blackface or Swaledale); and the Welsh Mule (with Beulah Speckled Face, Welsh Hill Speckled Face or Welsh Mountain).
References
The Mule. Carlisle: Bluefaced Leicester Sheep Breeders Association. Archived 25 September 2026.
Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . Archived 23 June 2020.
[s.n.] (2010). British Sheep & Wool. Bradford: British Wool Marketing Board. .
Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. .
Breed data sheet: Bluefaced Leicester / United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Sheep). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed February 2025.
Transboundary breed: Bluefaced Leicester. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed February 2025.
Directory of Sheep Breeds. Malvern, Worcestershire: National Sheep Association. Archived 9 October 2024.
Susannah Robin Parkin (2015). British Sheep Breeds. Oxford: Shire Publications. .