[SteveHants]

"As with all domesticated sheep, the exact origins of the Wiltshire Horn breed is obscure, although skeletons found at the excavations of a Romano-British farm at Rockbourne Down in Wiltshire and other stone age sites indicate the presence of similar sheep which stood a mere 2 inches shorter than the modern Wiltshire. Many consider the origins to lie with the European Moulflour or wild sheep which still flourish in Corsica and Sardinia and that these were introduced to Britain by the Romans. Others say that the Phoenicians bartered them for copper and tin from the mines of South West England.............."
[/size]
[/size]

[Marches Farmer]

Mmm, I don't think the Southdown owes any more to the WH than the WH does to the primitive breeds of Scotland.  Maybe lamb became the plat du jour all over the place.

[SteveHants]

I think what happened was that they, along with a lot of other sheep were put to a merino.


They were (or are) the original large, white sheep of the southern downlands though.