Sheep Breeds
There are dozens of sheep breeds. Some breeds are developed for specific purposes such as wool, meat or milk production; some breeds have developed to suit particular climates. You may not want to have any specific breed at all - many commercial sheep flocks consist of crossbred ewes, such as Mules (Scottish Blackface ewe x Bluefaced Leicester ram) or Halfbreds (Cheviot ewe x Border Leicester ram), crossed with a terminal sire such as a Suffolk or Texel, to produce fat lambs.
The website of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust is worth a visit as is the National Sheep Association site. Visits to the bigger agricultural shows will give you the chance to see many breeds first hand and breed societies are happy to help and advise.
We decided that we wanted to have a British rare breed and chose the Ryeland. The Ryeland is essentially a dual purpose breed producing quality wool and a good carcase. There are white and coloured strains - we have three coloured ewe hoggs. It is a Down breed i.e. bred to live on grassland rather than hill; it's docile and quite small, so relatively easy to handle and doesn't have the escapologist tendancies of some of the primitive or hill breeds. Being small and stocky, it is a good breed for orchards as it has neither the size nor physique for stretching up to eat leaves.