St Johns Chapel Show & Sale of Swaledale Draft Sheep
St Johns Chapel Auction Mart
Drafts
26.09.2026
St John’s Chapel Mart held its Annual Show and Sale of Swale Ewes, Shearlings and Lambs. A packed out ringside with customers old and new flocking to St Johns’s Chapel to secure the best of Swale sheep. It was truly a sale to remember with many people leaving short of requirements and a trade never seen before. The Swale is well and truly in demand and wanted again after such successful sales of Mule gimmer lambs these last few weeks, all in an average of £255.11 was achieved which included 185 Swale Lambs and broken mouthed Ewes making St John’s Chapel the top place to sell Swaledale’s.
Judging was in the very capable hands of Jimmy Bell, Lanarkshire who came upon the following results;
Prize List
Draft Ewes
1st-I Collinson, Billing Shield
2nd-JR & CM Dalton, South Wellhope
3rd-Weardale Estates
Shearlings
1st-CC & RG Martin, Shittlehopeside
2nd-Messrs Green, Hill Farm
3rd-R R Everitt & Son, Kirkley House
The sale topped at £420 for the 2nd prize pen of 10 Ewes from J R & C M Dalton, South Wellhope this quality pen had much presale admiration and looked the part when entering the ring, this home also sold 15 more at £290, another 20 at £285, 18 more at £280 and their final pen at £270 achieving an overall average of £302.57 for a great run of ewes up an unbelievable £133.33 on the year.
Next up was the champion pen from I Collinson, Billing Shield which sailed to £370, this home sold 9 pens or 122 Ewes for £260 or more to average £275.45 with many customers coming back for Ian’s sheep year after year.
JT & EF Golightly, Lilswood Cottage sold a strong pen of Ewes to £275, with broken mouthed ewes selling to £175 for 20 from Airey Bros, Brownchesters. W Emerson, Landeau wins the award for the biggest rise on the year seeing his first pen of 20 Ewes sell for £290 and next pen of 15 selling for £275 this comes out at an exceptional £167.89 better than last year.
Shearlings were also very competitively bid for topping at £330 for the 1st prize pen of 10 from C C & R G Martin, Shittlehopeside with his next pen of 11 sailing to £298.
Also achieving £300 was S & SJ Pickering, Low Rigg with a powerful pen of Swaledale Shearlings.
The annual consignment of Shearlings from Messrs Green, Hill farm peaked at £295 for each of their first 3 pens of 10 with the next 2 pens at £292 and £290 another vendor seeing a rise of over £100 on the year.
Swale Gimmer Lambs were also in demand peaking at £175 for 10 from Reed Partners, Dyke Nook with another 10 from this home reaching £170.
It was great to see such demand for Swaledale sheep once again, not only on the breeding side but also Swale Store lambs have been extremely well cashed this last month and we are looking forward to another good sale of 2500 Store Lambs at St John’s Chapel this coming Saturday the 3rd of October.
St John’s also hosts the D District of over 300 Swaledale Rams on Tuesday the 13th October with the catalogue to follow very soon.
We hope to see you all at St John’s Chapel soon and wish all buyers the best of luck with the purchases.
Harrison Collingwood
EWES
Swaledale – £420 South Wellhope; £370 Billing Shield; £290 South Wellhope & Nether Scotch Hall & Landeau; £285 South Wellhope; £280 South Wellhope; £275 Lilswood Cottage & Billing Shield & Low Rigg & Nether Scotch Hall & Landeau; £270 Billing Shield x3 & Thornley Hall Farm & South Wellhope; £265 Billing Shield x2 & Hudgill Rigg; £260 Billing Shield x2 & Vallance Lodge; £255 Goldhill x2 & Vallance Lodge; £250 Vallance Lodge x2; £240 Goldhill & Thornley Hall Farm; £235 Lilswood Cottage & Treaty Park; £220 Shittlehopeside & Goldhill & Vallance Lodge; £215 Shittlehopeside & Goldhill
BROKEN MOUTH EWES
£175 Brownchesters; £162 Brownchesters
SHEARLINGS
Swaledale – £330 Shittlehopeside; £300 Low Rigg; £298 Shittlehopeside; £295 Hill Farm x3; £292 Hill Farm; £290 Hill Farm; £285 Kirkley House Farm; £280 Kirkley House Farm; £275 Kirkley House Farm; £272 Hill Farm
BREEDING LAMBS
Swaledale – £175 Dyke Nook; £170 Dyke Nook; £165 Dyke Nook; £140 Bollihope Shield; £135 Bollihope Shield
OTHER BREEDING SHEEP
Cheviot – £230 Treaty Park
Suffolk Cross – £230 Treaty Park