A NORTH Yorkshire hill farming family has shared a top wool award for its consistently high standards of production over the last ten years.

Mr Brian Thornborrow, right, and his wife, Dot, who run 800 Swaledales and 20 suckler cows on some of the bleakest and highest land in England at West Stonesdale at the head of Swaledale, tied for the title "wool producer of the decade" with David and Bryan Price from Llanddeusant, South Wales.

The competition is run by the Wool Board and its judges praised the Thornborrows' enthusiasm, stockmanship and the detailed, meticulous logging of the flock, which ensured that the complete genealogy of every sheep born on the farm was known.

The judges were Mr Malcolm Brook, the board's chief appraiser for 20 years; Mr Robin Morrow, former chairman of United Dairy Farmers, Northern Ireland, and Welsh sheep farmer, Mr Alun Evans, Wool Board chairman at the time of judging