Meat
Wiltshire Horn
B tier
Wiltshire Horn is an ancient English white sheep that naturally sheds its fleece, leaving a clean hair coat in summer—unique among traditional British breeds. Both sexes may carry heavy horns; the breed nearly vanished before rare-breed recovery and use in hair-sheep composites revived interest. Wiltshire Horn lamb is lean and delicately flavoured with little wool grease influence on the skin—favoured by smallholders who want meat without shearing. Carcasses are light-to-medium; meat suits spring roasting and grilling. The breed’s shedding gene entered Katahdin and other modern hair composites.
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History
Shed-coated horned sheep were recorded on Wiltshire and southern English farms.
A breed society formed as numbers fell under competition from wool breeds.
Rare Breeds Survival Trust priority listing drove conservation breeding.
Genetics contributed to international hair-sheep programmes while pure meat sales remained specialty.