In 2001 John and Debbie bought Townhead farmhouse with no land, but in 2009 were offered the opportunity of buying fields adjacent to the house, and so Townhead Farm flickered to life again.

In 2020 Debbie went to a sheep auction to buy a breeding ram and also bought four pedigree Blue faced Leicester ewes (female sheep). In January when the sheep were scanned to confirm pregnancy the scanner marked one ewe as having twins and described one as being very large and the second being so small and not likely to be born alive.

On the 8th April 2022 the ewe gave birth to two live female lambs, one was very large and weighed 8kg, the second was 1kg and unable to stand. Her back end worked perfectly well but the front end and no muscle at all with legs like jelly. What she did have going for her though was a will to keep going and try. There was only one place for her and that was in the kitchen in front of the Aga for warmth and the dogs for company.

A vet was consulted but had not seen this before, research showed that this was probably white muscle disease which is caused by a lack of the mineral selenium. The thinking is that her very much
larger sister who remained with Mum had absorbed most of the goodness when they were in the womb causing this deficiency in the now named ‘Jelly Legs’.